Prisoner's Dilemma
by 4thespada-ulquiorra
Summary: When Loki falls to Earth Tony's there to find him, and seeing only an injured stranger takes him in with no thoughts for the consequences. As it turns out, a pet god is a big responsibility. Written before viewing the movie.
1. Fallen Angel

**A/N: Well. Um… welcome to my first Marvel fic. Of course it's Loki- it would have to be considering my rampant obsession and the fact that he's on my shirt right now. Why he's with Stark? Well, the world may never know because I certainly don't. The more I think about them, the more similar they seem- and my attempts to write a friendship fic suddenly evolved into romance and that's what you guys get.**

**So enjoy. **

**Marvel belongs to Stan Lee and that villain Mickey Mouse, but god damn if us fans aren't slowly taking it over.**

There were few more vexing ways to be awoken than by the grating sound of a British attendant's voice- and a mechanical one at that. "Sir, your Utah radar has just picked up readings like the ones S.H.I.E.L.D. requested you monitor."

"I swear to God, J.A.R.V.I.S., I'm going to disable your accent one day." Replied the muffled voice of Tony Stark, marred by a heavy metallic desk which he had no desire to raise his head from. "It's what, three in the morning? Tell the astrophysical anomaly to go to sleep, I'll call it back tomorrow."

"I'm afraid agent Coulson stressed that this was a most urgent matter, sir. Mrs. Potts is already preparing for your departure."

"Well, so long as Coulson doesn't know when this happened, we don't have any issues here." Tony retorted, nonetheless raising his head and rubbing one scraggly side- it was numb, he evidently had fallen asleep in that position. "Get me some coffee and download the coordinates into the suit then get that up and ready. Coffee first."

"Already done that." He turned toward the doorway, one hand running through his ruffled hair almost involuntarily, just as his assistant stepped through and stood waiting, a steaming cup of coffee in one hand. "With cream and sugar."

Pepper never indulged him quite as much as he would like, so he knew better than to expect her to come to him and rose to greet her, his eyes meeting hers at the same time his hand met the cup. "Now I know why I keep you."

He didn't smile, but then again he rarely did. The gesture was indicated in his voice and only she would ever have recognized it. "Because I'm the only nanny who would take you?"

"That too." He conceded before taking a quick draft of the drink. He preferred it with brandy, but he'd been lectured enough about the alcohol during his recent (believed to be) end-of-life crisis. He didn't expect to have a drink handed to him by anyone but a bartender until his friends forgot his birthday party. "So, Utah? What happens in Utah? Mormons and the Olympics, like, one time. Now they're getting energy storms? That's just weird."

"The exact location has been uploaded to your suit, sir." J.A.R.V.I.S. replied rather than deigning to respond. Honestly, the computer was almost as snarky as he was, no wonder they got along so well.

Tony turned away from his assistant, harder than it might seem when she was done up in a low-cut red dress even so early in the morning, and pointed at his iron suit more for the sake of bothering his machine than anything. "Get that thing all oiled up. I don't want to crash out in the middle of nowhere."

"You never crash." Pepper scolded, well aware of what he was doing. "I thought you'd be more excited about this."

"What, looking at some falling stars? That's S.H.I.E.L.D.'s thing, not mine." He retorted, draining the last of his coffee in one gulp and putting the cup down in such a hurry that it nearly dropped. Yeah, all right, he _was_ pretty interested in this thing, and they both knew it, but that didn't mean he wanted to go out to Utah in the middle of the night. Couldn't the thing have happened in Vegas somewhere?

"Don't tell S.H.I.E.L.D. until I've gotten a chance to look at the thing myself." He ordered, stepping up to put on his ever-faithful red and gold suit that was now ready and waiting for him.

"Of course, Sir."

"Of course? Tony, you need to call Fury or Coulson right now." Pepper hurried to join him, looking back and forth between the machines as if she might seek some reason there. "They need to know about this-"

"And they will. Just, not now." Tony assured, the metal slamming shut over his upper arms just as he reached for his helmet, which he put on the moment he'd maneuvered into the torso. The thing was extremely useful, but far from convenient. At least he didn't need every one of his robots to get in and out of it anymore.

"Tony, I can't just… So long as you call them the second you've had a look." She warned, with hardly a second's hesitation. He wasn't exactly the easiest person to argue with, especially not when it came to something this fun.

"I can't make any promises. Well, I could, but I probably wouldn't abide by them." He conceded, closing the hatch over his face before she could protest further. "Don't wait up, honey."

"Do I ever?"

"No, but you should, it'd be good for my self esteem."

"I'm not going to help you blow up your ego, Tony. Nobody wants to clean that mess."

"Don't be silly, of course they do." Finally the hatch that had already saved them hundreds in property damage was opened, and he ignited his boosters just in time to hear Pepper calling for him to "Enjoy Utah" before he shot out of the building with a typical, and extremely satisfying, sonic crack.

* * *

><p>Flying was extremely fun… when you were only doing it for a few short minutes, or when something was at least shooting at you to add a bit of excitement. But nothing shot at the Iron Man anymore. He was cleared indefinitely over any air field controlled by the United States, and as a result the soaring sensation, the freedom so many people longed for, became extremely monotonous before he'd even cleared California.<p>

The sun was still down when he finally reached the location J.A.R.V.I.S. had set into his GPS, but Tony had no time to appreciate the time he'd made. He'd seen photos of what Coulson and S.H.I.E.L.D. were so interested in- nothing but a few fancy circles in the ground. This was a crater, seven or eight feet of land thrown up out of the ground to form thick mounds across the otherwise flat landscape. Not soft mud or soil either- rocky stuff with the texture of chalk typical of the ground so near a mountain. Forget S.H.I.E.L.D., it was amazing that whatever phenomenon had caused this hadn't attracted people from all over the state.

Tony didn't have to look long to find whatever had fallen, but for a second even he could hardly believe it. Coulson hadn't said anything about this in the briefing.

There was a human being lying in the center- surrounded by snow of all things, and everything closest to them was stained red, but somehow their chest rose and fell, producing a wheezing sound he'd earlier acquainted to the wind. He put in a call to Pepper as he ran to their side, stepping carefully as he got closer to avoid disturbing the land. (Well, he was worried of course, but he still wanted to study this whole thing.)

"Tony? What is it? Did you find the site already?" Pepper demanded as soon as she had answered.

He bent down slowly beside the person, the snow nearest to them so hot with blood it was slush beside hard ice. "Yeah, just did. Pepper, it's a person." He could see now they were male- though he had a soft, feminine face there was no doubt, considering what seemed to be a leather coat had burnt away almost entirely at the chest and edges, presumably during the fall. And they were blue.

"Wait, it's a- a _person_? You mean, like a human being?" Her voice was as adorable as it ever was when she was confused, but Tony didn't have time to enjoy that.

"Well, I think so. He's kind of blue." There was something clutched in the man's right hand, a blue box that glowed with the same light his arc reactor did. Other than that there were no similarities however, and he had no idea what kind of energy was coming off the thing. Whatever it was, the stranger couldn't waste the strength to hold on like that- he was barely breathing as it was.

"_Blue?_ Is.,.. is he sick? Oh my God, how cold is it in Utah?"

"Not sick, he's really blue." Tony reached out to take hold of the black handle the man- more of a boy, really, kid looked barely in his twenties- was clutching and carefully released his grip. It wasn't hard, the unconscious stranger offered no voluntary resistance and the cube came free rather easily. As soon as it had he froze with one hand still holding it and watched curiously as the blue began to drain out of his skin from the fingertips upward.

"What do you mean _blue_, Tony?" Pepper demanded hysterically, and he was forcibly reminded of her fumbling attempts to help him replace his first arc reactor. At least she'd been able to see the danger then.

"A primary color, not red or green." He replied calmly, frowning behind his mask. The blue, whatever it had been, was gone now, but he'd have preferred it to the bleached white of the boy's skin after it had left. "Pepper, J.A.R.V.I.S. has my location, call me in a jet. This guy needs help."

"O-okay, I'll call Fury and have him get you an ambulance." She promised, her breathing slow as she attempted to remove the panic from her voice.

"No. No S.H.I.E.L.D., no ambulance. I want a jet with a medical team on it to fly this guy back to the house. Need me to be more clear?"

"Tony, if he needs to go to the hospital you can't bring him here just because you want a chance to look at him! S.H.I.E.L.D. is better equipped for this." She scolded, followed by the faintest undertone of a beep. He imagined her poised with the house phone in hand, ready to call one of those government stiffs the moment she knew enough.

"I think maybe you're forgetting that I know what it's like to wake up somewhere completely strange with injuries you barely remember getting." Tony retorted, and for a moment she was silent. He took that chance to get a quick reading of the boy's temperature undisturbed. According to the suit he was almost ten degrees below what he should be- a miracle he was still alive. Then again, he didn't seem to be normal even by Tony's standards. "Last thing this guy needs is to wake up in some government facility so Fury can interrogate him the second he's conscious."

"You know they won't do that. We can't take care of him like they can, Tony." Her tone had softened, become almost sad or even pitying- which, annoyingly enough, would be pity directed not at the stranger but Tony himself. She hated to remember what had happened to him.

Before he could respond the boy drew his attention away with a short gasp of pain, then began to suck in quick, shaky gulps of air, the effort bringing beads of sweat to his already chilled skin. He clenched his jaw but didn't quell his breathing, and a moment later gave a sharp cry and arched his back. Tony recovered from his surprise and crouched beside him, holding him down with as much force as he dared to prevent the boy from hurting himself more as he almost desperately swallowing air- which only increased the wheezing quality to his voice. Before Tony could do anything he suddenly relaxed, head rolling limply to the side. For a moment the older man stood stock still, horribly certain he was either dead or very close, until the boy gave a sudden, weak cough that only added to the blood in the snow.

That explained the wheezing sound anyway- he'd probably punctured a lung, no wonder he couldn't get enough air. Tony removed the metallic glove from his right hand and set it aside. He needed to see just how badly the boy was hurt which, unfortunately, extended beyond the suit's list of capabilities, and prodding him with metal fingers wasn't going to make anything better.

"Tony?" Pepper called in anxiously, and he only then remembered he hadn't replied to her yet. "What's wrong? Is he okay?"

No, he definitely was not. The moment he had removed what he could of the leather, some of it had burnt his skin or stuck to it by blood and would be too dangerous to touch, that became all too clear. Whatever wasn't cut open was heavily bruised, and some parts of his body were both. The majority of his chest was a violent redish purple, and after running his hand across the area as gently as he could, nonetheless causing a whimper of pain, Tony confirmed six ribs cracked and at least two broken. His left arm had been snapped as well- the angle of it made that clear enough. There was a dangerous amount of swelling over his stomach as well as heavy bruising, and that he didn't dare touch that in case the internal damage was as bad as it looked. Adding to that heavy bleeding from the back of the head, multiple burns and scrapes, a two-inch wide tear that split the length of his side and whatever injuries he'd taken in the back did not make for "okay" by any definition.

"Pepper, this guy's going to die if we don't treat him fast. So stop arguing and send that plane over, all right?" He replied after the girl called in with the same questions a second time. "Medical team, and a jet. Step to it."

She began to protest yet again but he canceled the call, aware that she would do as he asked no matter how reluctantly. The boy was a much more pressing concern at the moment, even if there was little he could do to help without the proper supplies. Or any supplies, actually. That was probably a bad thing.

Still, he could at least get him water. There was plenty of snow around, and he began to search for some that was blood-free that could be melted with a quick blast from the suit. He stood up to get a better look, then froze. The boy was looking at him. His eyes were glazed with agony and exhaustion, but they met Tony's and held fast, calm and cold and eerily beautiful. Though he was the uninjured one he found himself rooted to the spot like a deer caught in headlights, unwilling to look away and afraid of what might happen if he tried to move. The stranger at least glanced down at his arc reactor, watched it for a brief moment, then shifted his gaze to that glowing box, which Tony had discarded without a thought. He found he was holding his breath yet didn't let it out even when he was aware, not until the stranger had wearily closed his eyes and once again gone limp.

Nobody had ever met his gaze when he was wearing the suit before, not even when he'd pulled up the visor. This stranger wasn't just a puzzle, he was dangerous.

Good thing Tony liked danger.

**A/N: Whelp. There you go. I hope you enjoyed it- reviews are appreciated! I don't care if they're bad or good or whatever, it's just nice to know people are reading. (Please no flame though- if you hate it, be constructive when you tell me why.)**

**Sorry I hurt you so bad Loki baby. ;_; I still love you, I promise!**


	2. Nightingale

**A/N: Did everybody have a happy turkey-sacrifice day? Or, for any foreign readers, a good Thursday? I know I enjoyed writing this over a plate of leftover food. Thanks to everyone who's reviewed so far- you guys are the world's best motivation. Here's chapter two for your potential enjoyment!**

**Disclaimer: I still don't own Marvel, and I probably never will- but I'm required to say this anyway. So enjoy the redundancy.  
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Pepper was true to her abilities- the jet arrived in just over an hour, by which time the sun had begun to rise and Tony had successfully gotten some water down the stranger's throat, though it hadn't visibly helped. The boy was only getting worse with the passage of time, so by the time the red haired girl came running out of the plane, a team hurrying after with a stretcher, he was barely breathing at all.

She froze once she was closer and stood staring in horror at the amount of blood on the ground. Tony had done his best to stop the boy's bleeding, but when he'd cleaned out the rock and dirt embedded in his wounds it had taken up again and only just stopped. The stuff was all over his suit, whether from kneeling in it or trying to care for the boy. He wasn't fond of the look, and did his best to scrape it off in the grass before it could do something to the paint job.

"Oh my God…" Pepper turned to Tony, eyes begging for some explanation, but he merely shrugged. Wherever the boy had come from was a mystery, and would remain that way if they continued to stand around and let him bleed.

"He'll tell us when he wakes up, so let's make sure that happens, all right?" Tony turned towards the paramedics, who were struggling with the stretcher on such uncertain ground and hadn't yet seen what Pepper had. "No rush or anything. Feel free to take your time, I'm only knee-deep in this guy's blood over here. God, you guys are slow. You know what? Just wait there."

For some reason he didn't want them to see the ground, to ask any questions about the crater or the snow or how he was alive after losing all that blood. So he went over to the stranger and bent down then, gently as he could considering the nature of the suit, lifted him up and carried him to the stretcher.

The second they saw the state of their patient the paramedics went on hyper-drive. One of them went running back to the jet at the command of another, and those who remained rushed forward to meet Tony half way. Once he'd laid him down in the stretcher the dark haired stranger was immediately equipped with an oxygen mask and wheeled, slowly, towards the jet. They hadn't risked strapping him down- the bruises only looked worse in the light.

"How long has he been here?" Pepper wondered, still staring down at the crater sight with a nauseous look.

"Five hours, give or take. Good thing I didn't go back to sleep." Tony admitted, though his eyes were so heavy he was tempted to do so despite all he still had to do.

"Five hours…" She shook her head, looking more disturbed by this than surprised. "You told me he was blue. I was freaking out on the way over here wondering what I was supposed to tell the doctors, and he looks perfectly normal."

"He was blue. He stopped."

"What? He stopped? Stopped what, being blue?" He really was more amused by her constant bafflement than he really should have been, but oh well. He only nodded cheerfully and began to follow after the paramedics, ready to take off his suit and sit down, calling out for her to, "Take that cube, all right?"

Pepper followed him at last, shaking her head and muttering rapidly under her breath about how much she hated her job. Inside the jet the air was much warmer than the outside had been, though it admittedly smelled of the numerous alcoholic drinks Tony's planes were always stocked with. Pepper had brought the biggest one he had, presumably so there was room for the ridiculous amount of medical equipment filling its interior. They'd brought the stranger to that and were busy hooking him up to a number of machines that made the engineer in the room grimace. He hated trusting other people's technology.

One of the doctors looked up when they realized he was inside- helmet discarded as he reached for a bottle of the nearest wine. (He'd woken up after two days of no sleep in order to fly to Utah and sit with some complete stranger while he bled all over a crater for two hours- he deserved the drink.) The man hurried over to him after whispering instructions to a colleague and cleared his throat quietly to get his attention. When the other man ignored him- busy searching for a glass- he did so again, a little more loudly.

"You know you can just talk, right? I don't bite without permission." Tony said calmly, shrugging and uncapping the bottle when he could find no clean glass.

The doctor stared at him uncertainly for a moment- most likely unsure how much stock he should hold by a man who'd just started to chug wine from the source- then cleared his throat once more. "Mr. Stark, I'm going to level with you. We need to take this man to a hospital immediately. When we were told you had a friend in a mountaineering accident we never assumed it would be this bad. We don't have the supplies."

"So stop and get them. You can do that, right?" It took him a moment to finish swallowing the mouthful of wine he'd just taken- the stuff was way too bitter, probably a gift from some business associate with bad taste. "Or I'll buy it, that'd be cool to have anyway."

"Sir, the facilities aren't appropriate-"

"What, you don't like my jet? That's not very nice."

"The jet is very nice, Mr. Stark, but it's not a proper environment to treat the wounds this man has. I'm especially worried about all the internal damage- he may require surgery and this simply isn't sanitary."

Tony hesitated, unsure how to phrase his problem. There was a huge chance this guy wasn't a normal human being considering the color he'd been earlier, and if they started cutting him open they might see something weird about his body. He glanced at the stranger to see if he would have to accept the risk- only to see a doctor sticking him in the arm with a blood bag.

"Whoa whoa whoa, what are you doing? You have no idea what his blood type is." He hurried over and grabbed the doctor's wrist before he could potentially flood a foreign species' system with human blood.

"This is O positive, it's a universal donor." The doctor assured, obviously missing the point. "We made sure to have some, we figured he wouldn't have enough blood for us to test him."

"Right, well, I'm going to go ahead and say that's a bad idea."

"Sir, he _needs_ blood. We can't do anything else until we've given him at the very least two pints."

"Tony, can I talk to you?" Pepper hissed, grabbing his upper arm to pull him away from the perplexed doctors. "You have to let them land at a hospital. If you're so obsessed with taking this guy home you can do it after he's stable."

"We can get him stable at home." Tony retorted, to the doctor's amazement and Pepper's amusement. She alone seemed to realize he was joking. "Look, breathing mask? CPR'll work fine. A lot more fun too. I know CPR, does he need CPR?"

The doctor he'd addressed shook her head slowly and seemed to debate an actual response before pointing mutely at the mask, which seemed to be doing its job surprisingly well. He was breathing again, at least, though the look wasn't exactly flattering.

"Stop flirting with their patients." Pepper scolded.

"I'm not flirting, he'd have to be conscious for that. This is more like harassment."

"Not funny." Pepper retorted dryly, well aware he would ignore the input. "We don't have to tell S.H.I.E.L.D. Just let them land so he doesn't die- you wouldn't get your play thing then."

Tony didn't really believe in fate, and he despised coincidences, but when his reply was interrupted by the frantic beeping of the stranger's heart monitor he knew one or the other was in play. The doctors immediately rushed to see what was going on, and the pain in the boy's face was enough to convince him even without Pepper's pointed look. No use keeping the guy from being studied in a hospital if he was going to die otherwise.

"Set autopilot for the nearest hospital and give 'em a call to be ready." Tony instructed, placing the half-drained wine bottle on the bar counter.

"And what about you?"

"I'm drunk, and I'm going to sleep. Wake me if he dies or when we get there- whichever comes first." He waved once and began to walk towards the other cabin of the plane so he could lie down before it actually took off, but doubled back to grab the bottle. He'd had a _really_ long day, after all.

* * *

><p>The nearest hospital had not been as far away as Tony's drowsiness would have liked, but at least he'd only had to wake up long enough to give a bit of information to the nurse at the counter before passing out in one of the lounge armchairs. Not that they were likely to believe the information, considering he'd finished the entire bottle of wine before they got there. At least it was the really bad, watered down stuff. He'd hate to have been put in a room for alcohol poisoning.<p>

By the time Pepper woke him up it was dark outside and the hospital's visiting hours had long since ended- but of course they weren't about to tell Tony Stark he had to leave considering all his company had given to modern medicine.

"They want to keep him here overnight. I've made reservations at a nice hotel nearby, so" She began as soon as he had roused enough for coherent thought.

"Uh-uh. He's done we get him back on the plane and go home- J.A.R.V.I.S.'ll monitor him better than they will anyway." Tony replied bluntly, stretching his sore arms and grimacing at the headache the cheap wine had brought about.

She gave him that look again, the one that said they both knew he was being an idiot and now wasn't the time for it. Not that he ever listened. "Tony, he's just had major surgery. We should go to a hotel for tonight and call Fury in the morning-"

"Funny, thought I already said no S.H.I.E.L.D." He mused with false interest, stopping in front of a nearby nurse. "Hey, what room's that guy we brought in sleeping at?"

"Um… 153." She replied after a brief thought. "But he's not supposed to have visitors right now."

"Good." He started off down the hall that, according to one of the many signs, lead to rooms 100-162. Odd number to stop at.

"Tony, wait!" Pepper hurried after him, her heels clanking loudly on the hard tile floor. "Fine, we won't call S.H.I.E.L.D., but we should still let him rest here tonight. He had a hole in his _lung_, Tony. Then he's got some sort of abdomen trauma and they've only just managed to cut off all that leather-"

"He can rest on the plane."

"Why are you being so stubborn about this?"

"Maybe I think he's pretty." Tony suggested, not even bothering to repeat himself. Pepper didn't understand what pain could do to you. It killed rational thought and drove you against a mental wall- everything became a threat, and every irregular movement of your body, everything that used to be natural to you, convinced you that you would never get better. It was scary enough on its own, nobody needed to throw an eerie environment on top of that, and besides…. Tony was very interested in this boy and how exactly he'd ended up at the center of a crater in a pile of snow in the middle of the summer.

"We'll find you a different boy toy. One who doesn't turn blue." Pepper retorted immediately, completely unfazed. "Please, Tony, just one night."

"If we weren't in Utah, I might say yes, but all I can get out here for room service is food and that won't occupy me. I want to go home, and that guy's coming with me. I didn't do all this to walk away without finding anything out."

She rolled her eyes and gave a long-suffering sigh but made no further comment. Years of putting up with him had taught the girl that there was very little to gain from arguing with Tony. So she followed him to the room, probably intending to keep him out of the very worst trouble.

The doctors Pepper had brought- called from what was apparently a very complacent hospital- had stayed to help their patient through immediate emergency treatment, but had been sent home on the jet early that morning. (The pilot of that thing was probably ready to kill them for all the back and forth he was doing- at least he hadn't asked to bring the flight attendants too. Though maybe he should have, they were great dancers.) As a result those in the room at the moment had even less idea about what had happened than the ones on the plane had, which was all the better for Tony. Awkward questions were best avoided in this sort of situation.

"Sir, you're not supposed to come in here." One of the doctors scolded in a hushed voice, leaving the monitoring of the boy's condition to a colleague for the moment.

"Right, so if you'll let me take that guy and go I'll get where I _am_ supposed to be." He assured calmly, pointing over the man's shoulder to where his rescue-ee lay sleeping. He certainly looked much better than he had when Tony first found him, with a bit of color to him and all the dirt and blood washed off his skin. He was shirtless, not in the hospital gown, and with the blanket pulled down- probably to avoid any pressure on the still-bruised, surgery scarred skin there. Tony'd been making fun of Pepper earlier, but the boy really was pretty, almost like a girl. Shame he was so damaged.

"You want to take him out of this hospital? Not an option." The man replied immediately, astonished. "We're doing our best just to keep him alive."

"Yeah, and so am I." Tony explained nonchalantly. "I've got better stuff at my house than you guys've got here. Surgery? Can't do that. I can handle him now that you've finished that up."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Stark. I can't discharge him from this hospital."

"Then call it a transfer. I told you when we came in we'd been taking him out fast."

"According to my nurse you were also drunk." The doctor retorted. "I would need the written and verbal consent from his medical proxy before I could even consider something like this. Since you don't even know his name, I'm assuming that's not you."

"Tony, just forget it. I told you- just let him sleep here tonight." Pepper urged, sighing when he gave her an annoyed look. "I promise I'll find a way to keep you amused. We'll go on a date or something, just come on."

"Fine, but good luck keeping me entertained in Utah. Do you guys even have a movie theater out here?"

"Tony."

"Shutting up."

* * *

><p>In the end Pepper realized there was nothing to hold Tony's interest in town and the two returned to the hotel she had booked- a surprisingly nice place, though not as lavish as his own manor. Then again, few things were.<p>

Pepper sat down beside him on the bed with the TV remote in hand, scrolling through channels for something he wouldn't complain about. Eventually she tossed it aside, leaving the screen flashing with images of that ridiculous cartoon they'd made a month back featuring himself.

"Now you're just being mean." Tony complained, frowning at his animated portrayal. "My beard is much sexier than that."

"I'm sure your audience of teenage boys is aware of this." She retorted as she swung her legs onto the bed, though she remained sitting in a way that Tony, lying down to her side, had a very nice view.

"They'd better be." He replied modestly, shaking his head as his character delivered a ridiculously cheesy conclusion to the battle he'd just been in. "See, now I wouldn't say that. And why isn't he flirting with you? If you were in a shirt like that I'd forget the villain completely."

"Even if I was just kidnapped?" She wondered dryly, frowning at her swooning image as though blaming it for daring to be captured.

"See, now then I'd just feel sorry for the villain. What happened to the last guy who tried to grab you at a bar?"

"The one I pepper sprayed or the one you flew up in your iron man suit and threatened to drop because you were drunk?"

Huh. He'd almost forgotten about that. "That was a fun lawsuit."

"Just feel lucky he was wanted and we managed to pass it off as you apprehending a criminal." She sighed and shook her head, apparently remembering the luck of their lie. Tony still didn't even know what the man was wanted _for_.

"Well I was. Touching you is a crime, I have sole rights." He didn't even bother to attempt sounding serious there, they both knew their relationship was as open as one with him involved would have to be. Still, if she wasn't happy with the guy coming onto her he felt he was more than welcome to threaten to his heart's content. "There a drink in that mini fridge, do you think?"

Pepper smirked and stood to check, and for a moment Tony stared at her in surprise- she hated his habits. Then he was nearly hit across the head with the water bottle she threw him.

"Tease." He whined, nonetheless opening the drink and chugging down half of it in the hopes of clearing his headache. No such luck.

"Will that be all, Mr. Stark?" She taunted just as her counterpart on the screen did the same, looking down at him with a very suggestive smile.

Tony hesitated with the bottle still against his lips, then quickly capped that and placed it on the counter. "Not quite." He sat up so that he was level with her and returned the look, unsure whether or not she would shove him away if he tried to kiss her when she suddenly moved forward to press her lips against him. Surprised, he fell back, Pepper pulling back so as not to follow and give him any false hopes.

"Forget what I said earlier- _now_ I know why I keep you." He decided, and she rolled her eyes before kissing him once more. Tony returned the gesture, using one free hand to snatch the remote and shut off the television. He didn't feel like being watched.

**A/N: Agh, why did I add that last minute TonyPepper stuff? I promise the TonyLoki will happen- but keep in mind he's still with Pepper for this part of the story, and I realized when I was re-reading this that I didn't really show that. So uh, yeah. I hope you guys liked this chapter! Reviews will be rewarded with internet cookies! If you guys like this story I'd really love to hear it, and if you guys hate the story then tell me why. (Though I'd be a little confused as to why you're still reading it...)**


	3. Not Quite Prince Charming

**A/N: So, this chapter ended up being more than twice as long as the other two were. I guess I just have a lot of fun now that Loki's conscious. Speaking of which, since I haven't actually switched PoV yet, this will be indicated by a VVV at the top of the section. Thanks for reading, and I hope you guys enjoy chapter three!:)**

**Disclaimer: I still don't own Marvel. No, seriously, I don't. Can I stop writing that now? ._.**

**VVV  
><strong>

In all his thousands of years of living Loki had never faced pain like he did now. None of his father's punishments- and there had been many of those, some so horrible the mortals made their own stories out of them- was as brutal as when he fell to Earth. He'd felt his bones crack, heard the snapping, imagined the pain before it had actually come and when it did couldn't even cry out because taking the breath to do so had brought his lung against the sharp edge of a broken rib bone. The wave of agony that followed was so sudden it made him nauseous, and an involuntary engagement of his stomach had revealed that to be crushed as well. Only then did he finally pass out. What would have happened if he hadn't panicked as he fell and used the Casket to make a blanket of snow... Not a happy alternative.

Of course he remembered none of this when he awoke, aware only of a sudden increase in the ever-constant pain that seared so suddenly from his chest that he was aware of his own consciousness only after a harsh cry had flown from his throat.

Whether the sound or the pain woke him he did not know, but he was most certainly awake. He clenched his eyes shut after leaving them open only for a brief moment, having foolishly gasped for the air that the scream had taken from him. The sensation took almost a minute to subside to the point where he was able to regulate his breath again, though it never left his chest. It never left anywhere- his whole body could feel the effects of the fall.

But he no longer felt he was dying, and the ground beneath him… Well, it didn't seem as if it _were_ ground beneath him. He'd been moved, though whether for the good or the bad he did not know. Loki grit his teeth and struggled to open his eyes, senses too blurred for him to do more than squint. But he began to be aware of sounds, undefined voices and a mechanical clanking, nothing to be expected in a healing room.

Though it didn't seem he was in one of those. All he could see of his surroundings was a ceiling painted white, and the effort to turn his head to get a better view left him sweating, breath coming in shallow gasps. He attempted to lift himself up with his elbow for support and found that his arm, placed in some sort of sling, was too damaged to move. What an embarrassing state for a prince of Asgard to be in. The others would have mocked him, Thor always said he was never a real warrior…

Thinking of his brother made his head swim again, stomach sick though this time not from pain. There was no time to mope over his loss on the Rainbow Bridge, he had to figure out where he was. He could see little of the room, but he could tell that he'd been placed on a bed nearly as soft and large as his own on Asgard. Thankfully his potential savior had had the sense not to place him under the covers- he felt he wouldn't have been able to withstand even a cotton shirt considering his state.

There was little in the room to tell him where he was. A small desk stood beside the bed with a lamp typical of the technology-reliant Midgardians, and behind that nothing but a window extending the length of the wall with a set of maroon curtains half-drawn across them. There was something next to the lamp. A paper bag, the top folded down and something written on it. Bur…?

"Burger King. Best thing ever for a return to civilization. Or a welcome to it, whatever."

Stunned that he hadn't heard the man's approach, Loki instinctively moved to face whomever else was in the room but did no more than attempt to sit up when his body flared with pain. His eyes clamped shut again, and he pressed his head back against his pillow, which for some reason made it easier not to cry out.

When he felt he could he open his eyes again he turned slowly and through a haze of pain to watch the man that had just walked into the room. He wasn't anything remarkable, smaller than Loki himself both in height and muscle. His hair was reminiscent of Fandral's so-called "beauteous" style, as was his goatee- though both were brown in the stranger's case. The only feature that drew Loki's attention was a glowing triangle piercing through his shirt from the direct center of his chest. It gave off a light similar to the ice Casket, though without nearly as much power.

"Whoa there, sleepy head. You still with us?" The man asked, stepping much closer to the bed than Loki felt was comfortable.

"Who are you?" The young prince demanded, though it took him a moment to work up the energy to do so without breaking from the pain half way through.

"What, no good morning?" The man didn't so much as smile to indicate he was joking, a tactic Loki knew too well. He loved to mock his brother with false sincerity. "I'm Tony Stark. Now it's your turn."

For a moment he was tempted to demand an explanation as to where he was, but the fall hadn't blasted away Loki's charisma. He would be much better off playing nice until he knew more about what was going on. "My name is Loki Od-"

_I could have done it, father! I could have done it! For you, for all of us!_

_No, Loki._

"…Laufeyson. Was it you who brought me here?" The effort to speak was tearing at both his stomach and chest with an intensity that burnt, and he couldn't hide the shortness of breath that followed.

"Yeah, more or less. Didn't carry you all the way from Utah, but I did find you."

"Then I am in your debt." Loki conceded after a moment, the formal lilt of his voice a warning Tony failed to catch. But of course- not even his family ever recognized the danger in any so-seeming servility from the God of Mischief.

"I'll think of something you can do for me then." Stark assured with an arrogance that could have kicked Thor's to the curb. Except the pompous thunder god could at least back up his attitude with power. "In the mean time do me a favor and do your best not to die."

Any number of retorts to the odd question came to mind, but when Loki opened his mouth to deliver one he found his diaphragm couldn't handle the effort and choked on the words. He grimaced and took a few slow breaths, as deep as he dared, to loosen the muscle then gave a small nod in reply.

"For starters, don't talk." Stark glanced over at the bag he'd apparently left by the bedside. "Guess you don't want to eat that. Oh well, save's me ordering lunch."

The idea of eating made Loki so sick that he had to shut his eyes again and swallow to pass the feeling by. He didn't bother opening them to see what his unorthodox host was doing. The man had saved his life- he wasn't so paranoid to remain distrustful in light of that. He probably had a myriad of questions he was hoping to ask, especially considering the snow.

He had to repress the sudden desire to leap to his feet. The casket. Where was the casket ? He didn't doubt some primitive human would miss the importance of the artifact- he might very well have left it in this "Utah" he'd mentioned.

"You said you found me." Loki demanded, using as much force as he dared. "There should have been something with me, a blue cube-"

"Man, your priorities are worse than mine. Your glowing box is safe, buddy. No worries." Stark's voice was muffled by a full mouth, he'd probably gone for the abandoned food.

"Where is it?" Loki demanded, unable to calm himself until he'd already turned frantically to face the other man- in such a way that his broken rib was twisted with an audible crack.

The casket forgotten, he howled in pain, which only made the effect that much worse, and instinctively attempted to sit up. Stark was there within the second, forcing him down before he could make the damage worse. Loki, motivated by the pain and not the intellect he'd trusted for years, attempted to force his way free but weakened as he was could only struggle in vain before he lost the energy to do even that. His attempts to breathe yielded a rattling sound and the feeling that he was drowning, followed by the too-familiar taste of blood that he was almost too weak to cough out.

"This is gonna hurt, but probably less than that. No hard feelings." Loki barely heard the statement, much less comprehended it, before he felt Stark's arm pull away from his shoulder and grab his wrist, a quick sting, then the pain, the room, Stark, everything was gone.

* * *

><p>VVV<p>

"I thought you called me because he was _awake_." Pepper turned an accusing glare on Tony, who was far more used to the look than he should have been. "What happened?"

"He _was_ awake. I drugged him." Tony explained unabashedly, crumbling the paper wrapper for the cheeseburger he had been finishing when his assistant arrived.

The two of them were sitting around the kitchen island that was the closest thing he had to a dining table, mostly because they'd brought Loki into the guest room across the hall and with the door open they could watch him while they spoke. Not that J.A.R.V.I.S. wasn't already set to keep watch on anything that happened in there, but Pepper had insisted.

"You did what? Why did you do that?" She demanded, glancing nervously at their sleeping guest, who hadn't so much as turned his head since Tony'd shoved the needle into his arm.

"Doctor's said he's supposed to stay still, he kept moving around. His lung's not going to get any better if he keeps tearing it open." He replied defensively, fishing through the bag for the second burger he'd ordered. "Guy's more dangerous to himself when he's conscious."

She shook her head in disbelief and leaned her head in her hands. "Why did you even _have_ that?" She asked after a moment, drawing up to frown at him.

"Because the first time we got any reaction out of that guy he broke his cast and asked a bunch of delusional questions until he passed out again."

"Wait, have you… You've been carrying that around for a week?"

"Only when our little friend does anything."

"Was he actually awake this time?" She wondered at last, turning her gaze to Loki once more.

Good question. The brief moment of lucidity at the crater hadn't been the only time the boy had appeared to wake up- since they'd brought him to the mansion he'd opened his eyes and even spoken without the full effects of consciousness four times. The first time this had happened he'd demanded to know what "realm" he was in, said something about Jotuneheim and Thor, then upon realizing his arm was in a cast smashed the thing against the bedpost so hard it cracked. Clearly he was stronger than he looked, though granted he had passed out again immediately after. Still, impressive. When Tony had inspected his arm to make sure he hadn't made things worse he'd found that the bone had set already. Pepper'd been absolutely hysterical about the whole situation and demanded to know how he could possibly have healed that quickly, but Tony just shrugged and sent her to go buy him a sling.

The other times Loki was awake he seemed to think he was back home, wherever that was, and would either demand to see one of his parents or mutter something about a healing stone before going back to sleep. During each of these incidents he had seemed feverish and unfocused, but that morning had been different. He asked reasonable questions and until that cube had come up he'd been extremely collected and calm. How somebody could manage to seem regal while lying shirtless and injured on a bed Tony had no idea, but it definitely suit him well.

"Yeah, definitely. All I got out of him was his name though." Tony complained. He'd been hoping the boy would at least be able to hold a conversation. Maybe they should just give him a pen and some paper. "Said it was Loki Lauson or something."

"Loki? As in the Norse God?" Pepper shook her head in disbelief. "And you're saying he _wasn't_ delusional this time?"

"I just said he was awake. Delusional's another thing entirely. Considering he fell from the sky and changes color the name didn't seem that surprising."

"You need to call S.H.I.E.L.D. This is completely out of our league, Tony. Especially if he _isn't_ crazy." She warned.

Tony took a large bite of his cheeseburger to avoid making his redundant answer. Unfortunately Pepper merely crossed her arms and waited, glaring him down until he'd finished. "Uh-uh. I told you I'll call them when I think he's ready."

"You're not being fair, Tony. You can't say you want to keep him from S.H.I.E.L.D. so they won't interrogate him just so _you_ have a chance to do it yourself." She scolded, snatching away the burger and throwing it in the trash before he could distract himself with another bite.

"Now that was just rude."

"_Tony_."

"Don't get started, Pepper. You know how I am about my toys, I'm a complete child, you always say so yourself." He pointed out, staring regretfully at the ruined food before making his way to the fridge to search for a substitute.

"I know you don't think he's a toy. If you did you'd just have left him at the hospital." She retorted, and he gave a quick nod, conceding the point. "But whether you're curious or worried or _what_ you can't keep this guy in your house. What are you planning to do? Wait for him to get better?"

Tony thought back to his brief conversation with the boy, the aristocratic voice and defiance in his eyes, and shook his head. "I can't see him putting up with me that long. When that guy wants to go he'll go."

"Even more reason to call them. I'm not helping you with a man-hunt through the city when you lose him and S.H.I.E.L.D. finds out."

"Well he wouldn't be that hard to find really. Can't see him going all that fast right now."

"That's not the problem here." Pepper sighed and turned away in annoyance, realizing he was taking the choice between leftover pizza and pasta from Maggianos more seriously than her lecture. "How long until he wakes up?"

"Should be a few hours." He glanced down at his watch, a hand-made one that matched his Iron Man suit and monitored the arc reactor as well as told time, and saw it was only ten in the morning. He usually wasn't even awake by now.

"I'm going to go play mad scientist downstairs, feel free to join me." He decided, grabbing the entire box of cold pizza in one hand then kicking the fridge door shut. Pepper rose to prevent his escape as he walked past her, as ever stunning him with her mobility considering the size of her heels.

"You still haven't found out what that thing does?" She teased.

"Nope. But it 's really cold."

"Glad you're making such immense scientific discovery."

"I try."

Tony had spent even more time than usual in his workshop this last week, only going out for dinner or clubbing twice. Usually when this happened he was obsessed with some project or another- remodeling the room, making additions to the suit, or refurbishing one of his cars (which of course meant he had to do the same to all the others before he felt the job was done).Figuring out the nature of that cube, however, was a far cry from tuning up a Ferrari.

"You got an update for me, J.A.R.V.I.S.?" He asked as he entered the room, tossing the pizza box on his desk and sliding into his chair as Pepper walked up to inspect the cube. She knew better than to touch it- they'd discovered almost immediately that the thing was cold enough to cause freeze burn if touched with the bare hands. Tony'd had to dunk his hand in searing hot water to regain feeling. He did not, however, turn blue, which was a positive for him but a negative for his research. Obviously the thing reacted differently to Loki than it did to them, and he'd been eager to ask why when the cube came up in conversation. Of course the boy had chosen that moment to hurt himself, so he was stuck waiting once more.

"I'm afraid not, sir. Energy output is stable but as of yet the source is unrecognizable." The computer apologized as Tony pulled up a screen showing the scans they'd taken of the cube. The thing was nothing like any technology he'd seen before, and he'd attempted to break it down and compare it to the element his father had left him, to no avail. It didn't react to anything he'd tested it with so far, no matter how he attempted to combine them.

"Heat it up with a bit of chlorine, see what happens."

"Very well, sir."

Pepper shot him a look of the utmost surprise as the box surrounding the cube began to heat up and stepped hurriedly away from the container. "Is _this_ how you've been studying that thing? Throwing random elements at it?"

"Nope. I tried decomposition first, couldn't break it down. Whatever element that thing is it's in a pure state." He explained, swiping across the screen to move it aside and pull in the next image. He really did love this projector touch-screen, especially the reactions it earned when people saw it for the first time. They were usually too shocked to even notice what he was doing on there, which was sometimes a very good thing.

"Hey J.A.R.V.I.S., why aren't you containing the energy that comes off this thing?"

"I do not believe that is possible, sir. Would you like to try?"

"Give it a shot with one of the old reactors, see how it runs. Always good to have an alternative." Tony decided, remembering all too clearly the effects of the palladium. It was always possible there really were no negative effects from his new energy source, like Fury had claimed, but he rarely trusted other people's scientific opinions. Then again that was probably a bad thing- he wouldn't have tried the alternative element at all if Coulson hadn't been standing there with a tazer.

"Tony you can't let some completely foreign substance run your heart!" Pepper protested.

"Why not? I'm doing it already." He pointed out, flipping open the box of pizza and pulling out a slice.

The girl sighed and covered her face in exasperation as J.A.R.V.I.S. set to work on his command. "Why did I ever come back to work for you?"

"Because Fury told you he thought I needed a baby sitter and you were unemployed because you quit the last job I gave you?"

"Oh, right. Well what good is my job if I can't keep you from doing anything stupid?"

"I don't know. Kudos for your determination though." After typing in a few bits of coding to hopefully prevent the reactor from over-clocking when it was charged Tony beckoned for one of his other machines to bring it to the cube. He kicked away from his desk once it had and maneuvered the chair over to see the results of his earlier experiment. Pepper, shaking her head at his laziness, remained where she was.

Visibly there was no difference from the cube, and after a brief request J.A.R.V.I.S. showed there to be no chemical one either. "The chlorine has dissipated, sir, just like all the others."

"So it doesn't react to elements, but it gets rid of them?" Pepper stepped closer to the box, apparently unable to restrain her curiosity. "How does it do that?"

"I'm working on figuring that out." Tony admitted, though honestly he wasn't sure how he was to go about that either. The cube really was beyond his expertise, and he hated that. "We really need that kid in here. J.A.R.V.I.S., how's Loki look?"

"Loki, sir?"

"The guy bleeding all over my bed."

"He seems to be waking up, sir."

Okay, that was definitely unexpected. The cube momentarily forgotten Tony wheeled his way back to the main computer, pulling up the video feed from the camera they'd set up in their guest's room. Though the sedation should have kept anyone under for at least four hours, let alone somebody heavily injured and physically exhausted, the stranger was most definitely conscious. In fact, he seemed to be making an attempt to sit up, though he only moved a few inches at a time before he stopped to catch his breath.

"Great, he's going to kill himself before I can even ask him anything." Tony at last got to his feet, tossing his untouched pizza slice on the box cover and hurrying for the stairs.

"He's really awake?" Pepper stared after him in awe for a moment, but quickly recovered and caught up before he'd reached the top of the staircase. "How is that possible?"

"Dunno, you should probably ask him."

"Tony, you _drugged_ him. Are you sure it worked? Where did you even get sedatives?"

"I'd rather not answer that."

She put her hands on her hips and opened her mouth to respond but seemed to think better of it, shaking her head and following him down the hall. "I'd argue, but if the police come barging through your door I'd rather be able to claim ignorance."

"That's the spirit." Tony had forgotten to close the door- not like there was much point anyway, with only the three of them in the house- so he saw before he even entered the room that the cameras had been truthful. Loki had succeeded in reclining against the bed's headboard, if not entirely in a sitting position, and despite some ragged breathing and a sheen of sweat he was staring at them quite calmly.

Tony was a little put off by this, but he did his best not to let his disquiet show. Honestly, there was something very unnerving about Loki. Tony was used to people being a little daunted by him, or making a clear effort to prove that they weren't, when they first met- this guy's expression, however, made it very clear that he expected others to be nervous around _him_.

"I don't believe you mentioned a woman." He said, taking a moment afterward to breath. "Is she your wife?"

"I don't know. Pepper, you want to get married?"

"No."

"Apparently she's not." Tony conceded, turning back to Loki after having looked to Pepper for confirmation. "What about you?"

"I'm not going to marry you."

"Ouch. Rejection."

"Tony, stop it. I'm sorry, he does this to everybody." His assistant apologized, shooting him a dirty look before stepping into the room and offering her hand to the stranger.

Apparently sitting up was the most risk taking he was up for, because he shook his head apologetically and waited until she'd pulled her hand back, with an almost sheepish look, to reply. "I know the type."

"I don't do this to everybody. Just everybody pretty." Tony corrected her, leaning against the wall beside the headboard to watch the boy. His bruising had subsided slightly, but the dark purple had been almost better than this mix of red and a sickly green-yellow. "You up for a conversation?"

Loki actually took a moment to think this over, which was a little surprising. He didn't seem the type whose pride would allow him to show weakness. "For now. Tell me, where exactly am I?"

"Malibu, California. Earth." He added, just for good measure.

Loki nodded, as if that last bit of information was actually helpful to him. Then again, he had asked about "realms" once- maybe it was. "And may I ask why you brought me here?"

"Let's just say I know what you're going through." Tony replied. "Now my turn. Where do you come from?"

For some reason Loki seemed to find this funny. He chuckled quietly and shook his head, smirking slightly. "You wouldn't believe me."

"Try me."

"Maybe another time. It's not exactly a simple explanation."

"I thought you said you weren't going to interrogate him, Tony." Pepper reprimanded as he prepared to ask another question. "I'm sure he's got more to ask about than you do. Now that you're awake we should be concentrating on your health, first. You should probably get something to eat. Would you rather I bring you a smoothie or something solid?"

"A smoothie is some sort of food?"

"Yeah, just liquidated." Tony explained, shrugging off the strangeness of the statement. "Fruit, usually."

"Then I would be very grateful, miss…"

"Pepper Potts. I'm Tony's babysitter." She gave him her best "dealing with work" smile, which rarely failed to win anyone over. Though considering the silver tongue Loki had already managed to show off Tony doubted it would be all that effective.

"Pepper, then. Thank you."

"I'll go get that. Try to be conscious when I get back… and Tony, don't annoy him too much." She warned, sighing when he merely shrugged noncommittally in response. After saying a quick goodbye to their guest she left the room, grabbing her purse off the kitchen island on her way to the door.

Loki let out a breath of air and leaned his head back, shutting his eyes and taking in a series of pained, gasping breaths. Tony waited until he'd gotten this back under control to speak.

"Smart of you to pick up on that."

"She was eyeing the bruises like a mother hen. It wasn't exactly difficult." He replied dryly, his voice much weaker than it had been when Pepper was still in the room, but nonetheless confident. "I doubt she would have left if she was busy nitpicking over my injuries."

"Just don't drink the whole thing and throw up on my floor just to stop her from nagging you." Tony warned, glancing almost unconsciously at the boy's violet, swollen stomach. He was almost tempted to call Pepper and tell her to forget it- there was no way he could swallow anything like that.

"I'm not agreeing just to please her." Loki assured, sounding almost amused. He didn't continue for another moment, wincing after a too-deep breath. "I need food to recover."

"Really? Cause your arm's doing pretty good without it."

"It took too much of my energy to mend it even that much. I'm almost completely out." Loki admitted wearily, though he sounded more annoyed about this than anything.

"Mend it? So you healed yourself." Tony concluded, impressed despite himself. The closest he'd come to that was postponing his own death with the miniaturized arc reactor- he couldn't clear away the shrapnel in his chest. "Personally I would've gone for the stomach trauma first, but whatever. Priorities."

"It was mending poorly." He replied, moving his arm experimentally. "And it wasn't a conscious decision."

Tony shrugged, uninterested. If the guy had magical healing powers he could use them however the hell he wanted. "You're pretty calm about this. Wake up in strange rooms half-naked very often?"

"I dare you to find something I haven't done." Loki retorted calmly. A wave of pain must have hit him then, for he grimaced and put a hand to his side, pulling it away with bloody fingertips. "What is this?"

"Blood."

"I can see that. Why is it here?"

He'd been wondering that himself, actually. Tony made his way over to the bed to get a better look, and saw the bandages they'd applied- with copious amounts of medical tape that were apparently not doing their job- to the cut down his side stained red. He didn't seem to be bleeding, but he definitely had been recently.

"You must have re-opened that cut earlier. You know, you're a really self destructive guy." Tony mused, making a mental note to send Pepper for more bandages later. Considering his own dangerous tendencies they always had plenty on hand, though he'd never used this many in a row before. Then again, it _was_ a pretty nasty cut.

"It's not intentional."

"Hey, I'm pretty self-destructive myself. I know it when I see it." Tony warned, leaning back to study Loki's expression, which offered nothing but a polite confusion. "So how'd you fall, exactly?"

Finally, a reaction. The boy seemed taken aback for about half a second before he composed himself. He frowned slightly, as if merely annoyed, but there was a warning in his eyes that Tony doubted he was even aware of. "We hardly know each other well enough for you to make that sort of accusation." He pointed out, making a clear effort afterward to breath at a regular pace.

"What do you mean? I bought you dinner, didn't I?"

"I seem to recall you ate that yourself." Loki countered, though his amusement was clear enough to forgo any potential annoyance the comment might have implied.

Tony was finding it unusually difficult to remain nonchalant throughout this conversation. Loki was clearly in pain, but he spoke calmly and as comfortably as if he were around an old friend and not a complete stranger. He must have had questions of some sort but he seemed entirely uninterested in voicing them, or maybe he was too tired to.

"Maybe when you can actually ingest it I'll buy you something to eat. And you can tell me all about your random plummeting from space." Tony decided at last, watching to see if the boy would deny the possibility of his origin.

Loki gave no answer, whether to affirm or deny. Instead he smirked, held eye contact with the other man until he found himself looking away almost involuntarily, then nodded.

* * *

><p>Tony and Pepper were just outside the door, speaking about Loki as though he weren't there at all. Then again he didn't seem to be, at least in the metaphorical sense.<p>

"Well at least you didn't bring home a complete maniac." Pepper conceded as she watched their guest, once again sleeping soundly. At least it was the evening, he'd managed to stay awake on and off for most of the day.

"Are you implying he's a partial maniac? That's not very nice." Tony scolded, struggling to twist the stubborn cap off the glass bottle of coke she had replaced his beer with. Quite literally- she'd pulled the drink from his hands and left the soda in its place before pouring his preference down the sink, all the while silently daring him to protest.

"You know what I meant, Tony. He was very polite. Maybe I could convince him to give you etiquette lessons while he's here."

"I'd probably end up corrupting him." He replied bluntly, furthering the point with an attempt to smash the cap off on the edge of his counter. "Besides, I'm a good boy. I don't tell lies."

"Of course you don't."

"Honesty is one virtue I have."

"Sure, so long as it's an excuse to insult anybody. Why bring that up anyway? Are you saying he's a liar?"

"Actor might make more sense. You apparently give off the aura of a doting mother."

"Excuse me?"

"He didn't want you nagging. Second you left he started having trouble breathing again."

There was a slight pause, the woman was probably realizing the implications of this. "Why didn't you say anything earlier?"

"I wanted to see if he'd actually drink the whole thing just to shut you up. Boy's determined." Tony nodded in Loki's direction approvingly. Some things were too impressive not to give their due- and drinking a thirty-two ounce protein shake when you had internal bleeding all over your stomach region was one of them.

"God, you're awful."

"Is he? I've never spoken to him. You might have a point though. He here?"

"I thought you might be a little more considerate to the guy considering you're experimenting on his property downstairs."

"Does it count considering I've had no progress whatsoever?" Tony wondered, finally succeeding in tearing off the metal cap just as Pepper sarcastically handed him a bottle opener. "Only thing I could use it for would be a weapon."

"Considering you were a weapons manufacturer until eight months ago that's not exactly the worst possibility."

She didn't seem too optimistic about his getting back into that very successful business, and little wonder why. The Iron Man suits were the only thing he would build capable of destruction anymore- and those weren't exactly under mass production. "I'd rather use it to run the arc reactor. Think I'd be immortal if I channeled all that energy?"

"You'd probably melt your heart." Pepper replied bluntly, dashing the notion. "It blew up everything you tried to power with it."

Tony thought this over for a second then nodded his consent and chugged down a mouthful of Coke to avoid responding immediately. "So long as S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn't find out about it I don't care what that thing does. How mad do you think Loki would be if I got his magical glowing box confiscated by the government?"

"He'd probably throw you out the window."

"You think he could?" He glanced into the other room at the sleeping patient, taking note of his narrow form and the tightly coiled muscle evident there. Didn't seem to have an ounce of fat on him. "Yeah, he probably could."

"Well, if it gets confiscated soon at least he'll be too injured to do anything about it." Pepper teased, grabbing her purse off the desk and getting to her feet.

"What? You're leaving?"

She gave him a sarcastic smile, already on her way to the door. "It's late, Tony. Loki can keep you company tonight."

"You do realize how many innuendos I could make out of that statement, don't you?" He warned, already running over a few possibilities in his mind. Each of them was likely to result in heavy objects being thrown at his face, however.

Pepper only smiled again and shook her head, reaching for the doorknob. "Good night, Tony."

"No goodnight kiss?" He called as she left, waiting for the door to shut before letting out a frustrated breath and leaning back against the counter. He was used to living alone, that was never a problem, but there was something painfully lonely about having someone else in the house and being unable to talk to them.

He turned over his shoulder to look at Loki, chest rising and falling calmly in sleep, and sighed again, tapping his fingers boredly against the tile. "You could at least talk in your sleep, you know." He whined, obvious eliciting no reaction.

Resigning himself to another night in J.A.R.V.I.S.' company- he probably shouldn't risk going out when Loki might wake up halfway through the evening- he took up his Coke in one hand and made his way toward the stairs. Maybe he could at least entertain himself with watching the cube blow up his equipment.

* * *

><p>VVV<p>

Loki smirked triumphantly, aware of Stark's footsteps vanishing down to a lower level of the house. He might not have minded a conversation with the other man, he was smart enough to be interesting at least, but right now he was more concerned with the new information he'd just received.

The disheveled man was apparently a weapons engineer, and one with government connection. Whatever this organization was, S.H.I.E.L.D. he'd called it, it would be good to have access to it while he was on Earth. He'd only listened to the conversation in hopes of discovering the location of his weapon so that he might take it and leave as soon as he was well enough, but there just might have been some benefit in staying in Stark's company after all.

**A/N: Oh Loki you crafty bastard. I was originally going to have that last bit be from his PoV, but it just sounded awkward with just the dialogue and a few mental notes, so this is what you get. Cliché, I know. **

**As always, reviews are appreciated! Even just a few words to tell me what you liked, I promise it'll take way less time than writing this chapter (Sorry for the five day wait, btw.) You guys are what makes all this writing fun, and I can't tell you how motivating it is to know there are actually people who like this pairing. (Speaking of which, I promise there will be romance between them soon enough- I'm just doing my best to make it plausible.)**

**Edit: (Regarding the food, if he really had just woken up he wouldn't be eating, keep in mind he's been awake on and off a bit. I asked my brother in medical school and he said this made sense... but then again, I didn't research too much. _ It's a fanfiction, I kind of just wrote it as I went. Plus, not sure how medical treatment would work for Asgardians...)  
><strong>


	4. Dirty Little Secrets

**A/N: Hello again, and welcome to chapter four.:) I hope you're all enjoying this, and sorry for the delay. I spent this last weekend at Disneyland and there's not much chance to write up there. This chapter was particularly fun to write, just because I got to play around with Rhodes a bit. I also feel there's an actual plot developing, and we'll see some of that in the enxt chapter, I promise! **

**Disclaimer:Marvel's not mine, and neither is Starbucks.**

Though he didn't know it, there were actually very many things Pepper never told Tony about. She would often go drinking on her own and was quite good at holding it down, dated almost as often as he did though never so intimately, and met up at least once a week with Colonel Rhodes to discuss a variety of anxieties about their mutual friend.

She'd been so busy lately handling Loki's care, with little to no help from Tony, that she'd had to cancel last week. Now that the boy was waking up for hours at a time she was free to spend her time off as actual time off and had agreed to meet Rhodes at a Starbucks in Malibu. They'd learned quickly not to avoid places near Tony's house for fear of running into him- the man had an eccentric tendency to avoid the local haunts when he could easily fly somewhere that might entertain him more.

Rhodes was already there when she arrived, both their coffees on the outdoor table and a paper bag advertising the logo from a bakery down the street. She sighed gratefully and opened the bag with a fervor that had him grinning as she took a chocolate-covered croissant for herself.

"Be quiet, I'm starving." She warned, taking a bite and finding the treat fresh and warm, the chocolate melting in her mouth immediately. She'd half finished the pastry before she set it down, conscious that she'd managed to be as elegant as ever.

"Tony?" Rhodes guessed, sipping some of his coffee.

"My car broke down, but he's being more trouble than usual too." Pepper sighed and held her own drink, but didn't pick it up. The heat coming off the cup was nice, though it wasn't particularly cold that morning. "He brought home a stray."

"Tony?" The soldier seemed taken aback by this, though he quickly shrugged away his surprise. "Didn't know he liked dogs."

"Not a dog."

"Cat?" She shook her head. "Bird?" Again. "Raccoon?"

"Raccoon?"

"Couldn't think of anything else he might bring home. You know how his mind works, he might want a raccoon one day and catch one with the suit."

"No, not a raccoon. A person."

Rhodes stared at her for a moment to see if she was joking, then shook his head when she could only grimace in reply. "That's a lot weirder than a raccoon. How'd this happen, exactly?"

"J.A.R.V.I.S. picked up some weird energy signature and he flew out to see what it was-"

"What? And he didn't call me?" He sounded less offended than disappointed- the boys shared a love for adventure, if little else.

"It was for S.H.I.E.L.D."

"Hmph. Damn secret military organizations, too good for normal soldiers."

"A normal soldier wouldn't have gotten away with stealing Tony's suit." Pepper pointed out dryly, waiting for his sheepish nod to continue. "Two hours after he leaves I get a call from him saying he's found a person at the site. He tells me that they're badly hurt and I need to call him a jet."

"Why not go to the hospital?"

"They were blue." She replied calmly, giving him no time to process this before continuing. "We did go to a hospital in the end though. The next day Tony pulled him out when it was clear he wasn't going to die and brought him home. He just woke up yesterday, and he keeps hurting himself more. Not on purpose, but anyway I'm dealing with two idiots who keep finding ways to harm themselves. And he said his name was Loki."

"The trickster God or something?" Rhode thought this over, seeming oddly unperturbed. "You said he was blue?"

"Well, that's what Tony says, he was normal by the time I got there."

"In Norse mythology Loki wasn't a full-blooded God, he was actually half frost giant." Rhode pointed out after taking a moment to remember this. "It might actually be him."

"What? How do you even know that?" She demanded, more to put off the panic of comprehending this possibility than out of actual curiosity.

"Tony and I took a class on old mythology when I was in college. He said it looked cool but he ended up flirting with the teacher the whole time." He explained, pulling over the bag and searching inside for something he liked.

"So Loki might be… No, that's ridiculous." She decided, sitting up straight and crossing her arms with a severe nod. "Absolutely ridiculous. Just because Tony claims his skin changed color doesn't make somebody a God."

Rhodes raised an eyebrow at her. "You really think you can deny that it's possible considering there was a green man throwing tanks around on the news two months ago?"

"But that was a science experiment!" She protested, hushing her voice only after she earned a few disapproving stares from a passing couple. "James, you're talking about some heavenly being. How would he have gotten hurt then?"

"Norse gods weren't immortal, they could be hurt too."

"I'm sorry, but I just can't believe this." Pepper said, nonetheless bighting her lip as she pondered what this could mean if it were true.

"Want to find out?"

"How?"

"Let me meet him, I'll tell you if he's a God or not."

* * *

><p>VVV<p>

When Loki had awoken that morning he'd found the house seemingly empty. Stark was out, and had been since last night, but Loki was perfectly content by himself. Or, rather, he was content to amuse himself with the home's other resident.

"And he built you entirely by himself?"

"Surprisingly so, sir." J.A.R.V.I.S., or so the disembodied voice that was apparently a motherboard running the entire house called itself, replied.

"Interesting." Loki wasn't too impressed by Stark's apparent intellect, he'd gathered as much from their brief conversations, as he was by the fact that the man was capable of retaining interest in any one project long enough to see it through to completion. "And you run all his projects?"

"Anything that he does not complete entirely by hand, which is the majority of his work."

So the simplest way to see the best military technology Earth had to offer was merely to hack into one computer, which certainly wouldn't be capable of blocking magical interference. Humans held so much trust in their simple security. "Then you know where my casket is."

"I presume you are referring to the blue cube Mr. Stark is so intrigued by. It is being kept safely in Mr. Stark's garage, where you may retrieve it once you are well enough."

Once he was well enough. Unfortunately this didn't seem as if it would happen in the near future- even this simple conversation was leaving him out of breath and he still couldn't bring himself to a full sitting position without immense pain in his stomach. He would heal himself, but he couldn't muster up the strength to do so- and he was dreading the pain of it. There was no easy way to mend the body, even for an Asgardian, and he'd never been very adept at healing either. There was a high chance he would end up making things worse.

"It seems Miss Potts has returned with Mr. Rhodes. Please refrain from harming yourself further for their sakes, Mr. Loki."

Loki was for a moment too amused by the number of formalities the sentence had contained to question the statement, and as he'd begun to do so the sound of a door swinging open and eliminated that need. The door to the room they'd put him in was open, as ever, and he caught sight of Pepper and a strange man coming in together.

They were both whispering, clearly under the impression that he was sleeping, and he called out as loudly as he dared to relieve them of this misconception. "Good morning. I was just having a conversation with the house. It is surprisingly articulate."

"You've met J.A.R.V.I.S.? I'm sorry, we should have warned you about him." The girl apologized, setting the oddly shaped cup she was holding down before making her way to his room.

In truth he had been a little shocked to be awoken by a floating voice giving him the weather forecast for the day, but he'd recovered quickly enough. It wasn't a far cry from Heimdall's abilities. Thinking of the gatekeeper made his chest burn- though with what he wasn't certain. Anger, or perhaps guilt, predominantly, they were surprisingly similar in their effects.

Pepper had come fully into the room to stand behind him, placing her hands sternly on her hips and looking down at him in a way that reminded him firmly of his mother. It was fairly discomforting, but not so much as the stranger. He hovered just outside the doorway, expression blank but considering it was fixed on him Loki found this to be no comfort.

He would have hid the bruising if he'd been able to at that point, but he had to content himself with raising an eyebrow and meeting the man's gaze. He refused to appear vulnerable to a mere human, and waited until the man had looked away-just as Stark always seemed to, though out of courtesy and not discomfort - to speak. "Judging by the uniform this can't be that unusual to you."

"I've seen stuff like that before." He agreed, shaking his head slowly. "Never all at once. Usually the stomach is enough to kill them."

"Thankfully enough that hasn't happened." Loki replied calmly, though the idea did unnerve him a little. Hadn't he intended that when he fell off the bridge, though? The only reason he was still alive was panic.

"We were… wondering about that, actually." Pepper cut in, glancing towards the other man and clearly hoping he would speak instead. "Is Loki a nickname?"

Ah, finally. He'd been wondering why they hadn't addressed his introduction as a popular Viking deity yet. "No, my mother liked the sound of it."

"And your last name was-"

"Laufeyson."

"Like the frost giant?" Cut in the stranger, who for some reason giving Pepper a very pointed look.

Loki narrowed his eyes slightly at the comment, though he managed to refrain from appearing outwardly resentful. "You're very well-informed."

"Tony liked older woman in college." The man replied, apparently considering this to be a viable answer.

"You're wondering if I'm a god, or if I'm delusional. Correct?" The two looked at each other and seemed to come to some agreement, because Pepper nodded. Loki couldn't resist smiling at their nervousness- most Midgardians were completely in denial that there might be some fact in their so-called mythology.

"I promised to tell Stark where I came from later." He replied, smirking despite his resolve to remain polite. "Let's say you find out then."

"Sounds good enough to me. Don't let Tony forget to call me, he loves to keep all the fun to himself." The stranger said, holding out a hand and stepping further into the room. "I'm James Rhodes. Good to meet you, Loki."

"Likewise." Perhaps he was feeling overconfident because he'd spoken so much that morning without too much pain, or else he was following his brother's foolery and refusing to appear weak. Whatever the reason he attempted to reach over and shake the other man's hand, not only engaging his sore back but twisting his torso in a way that his ribs did not agree with.

Proud though he may be Loki was no fool and pulled his arm back immediately, clenching his jaw to prevent from crying out as his chest tightened with pain. The sensation was becoming much more familiar then he would have liked, though practice made it no easier to regain his breath or composure.

Thankfully neither Pepper nor Rhodes seemed to be the sort to fuss over him in this situation, though he didn't doubt the girl would be frustratingly more doting for the remainder of the conversation. Both remained silent until Loki had waited out the pain, her with a look of anxiety and him simply frowning.

"You would probably get better a lot faster if you would stop pretending you were all right." She scolded as soon as he'd glanced back at them.

"I didn't want to worry you." He replied, which wasn't entirely a lie. He had little concern for the girl's nerves, but her anxiety levels related directly to how much doting he would have to bear. "James, was it? What's your relation to Stark?"

Soldiers were rarely addressed by their given name except by those close to them, and the use of his had successfully discomforted Rhodes. "We've been friends for years. I look out for him when he gets himself in trouble."

Loki couldn't resist smiling at that. "You must be very busy."

"Guy's known me for a day and he thinks I'm trouble. Told you two I could set a new record."

If he hadn't earlier been holding a conversation with J.A.R.V.I.S. the sound of Stark's voice coming out of nowhere might have startled Loki, but as it was he merely glanced around curiously to confirm that the man was nowhere to be seen. Pepper crossed her arms over her chest and glanced up at the ceiling with one manicured eyebrow raised.

"Stop playing with the intercom, Tony."

"Why not? That's why I built it. You didn't think I was trying to be convenient did you?"

"Tony, just get your ass in here." Rhodes replied with a sigh. "How'd you hear us anyway?"

"Pepper wanted to spy on Loki's room."

"That was _not_ my idea, Tony!"

"Why are you watching that video feed, then?" Loki retorted, though the effect was dampened by a lack of volume and slight grimace of pain. He couldn't even shake somebody's hand without losing his ability for firm speech- a terrible condition for anyone, but especially an Asgardian. Even after being impaled by a spear most of those barbarians would have continued to charge into battle. Then again, his was a considerably worse injury.

"Because it's fun to watch you sleep." Stark replied over the intercom, though the sound coming from the other room implied he'd reached his door at last.

"I'm not sleeping."

"True enough."

Loki shook his head, amused by the behavior so strange yet familiar, so oddly similar to the more flirtatious warriors back home. The man was a mix of Thor and Fandral- though far less infuriating than either, at least so far.

When Stark came into the building it was clear that he'd been out drinking- Loki had seen the same look at least once a day in Asgard, and had in fact been the one to stagger home with his clothing unkempt more often than he cared to admit. At least he was missing the characteristic red-tinge that would have meant he was still intoxicated.

"Hi Honey, I'm home." He called pleasantly, kicking the door shut behind him. Never mind- the man was perpetually drunk, alcohol intake seemed to have nothing to do with it. Especially because he seemed to be looking not at Pepper but at the two men waiting in the room. "You know if you really wanted to see me you could have called."

"Hello, Tony." Rhodes replied bluntly, shaking his head as Stark threw his half-undone jacket (and that was a number count, he hadn't even opened the top buttons but rather a random series of them throughout the garment) aside as he joined them in the room.

Loki was beginning to feel uncomfortable. He had nothing against accepting hospitality, he was a Prince on Asgard and a God on Earth after all, but he wasn't enjoying being the only one on the bed when his sickroom was apparently the household's new meeting place. And beside that, he was finding it rather difficult to stay awake and couldn't very well sleep with them all gathered about.

"Glad you two've met." Stark said, waving his hand to indicate both Rhodes and Loki. "And look, you've already seen him without a shirt. Better than you do with the ladies."

"You should've told me when you went to look at that storm thing." The taller man scolded, disregarding the comment. "We're supposed to be a team."

"Sorry, S.H.I.E.L.D. only. We're an exclusive club." Stark apologized without an ounce of sincerity in his voice. "Besides, it was in Utah, nothing interesting happens in Utah. Didn't miss out on much."

Something seemed to click in Rhodes' mind, though Loki couldn't guess what. He was hardly paying attention to their babbling now. The aching had subsided, or rather seemed to have been shoved aside by a slight drowsiness that he did his best to ignore. "So that's why half my unit was sent out there last week. You caused that crater then?"

"Apparently so." Loki, who'd not heard of a crater but assumed one was highly likely considering the impact of his fall, replied.

"The news say anything about the blood and snow? There was a lot of that." Stark mused, glancing at Pepper. "Right?"

"Shut up, Tony." She cast an anxious look at Loki, who had barely heard the comment let alone been offended by the reminder of his injuries. As if his body wasn't doing that constantly- or at least when he was conscious. No wonder his eyes felt so heavy.

"If you knew why didn't you tell us? We spent half the week trying to come up with some explanation when the news got recordings of that place." Rhodes scolded, though his frustration seemed to bounce off the engineer, who only paused to pretend to think this over.

"Probably should've told me you were looking then. Loki, does your blood have poison in it or anything? Cause I think the government's got some now."

"Not to my knowledge." The young god replied, amused. The conversation was rather ridiculous from his standpoint, though it did at least serve to prove a further connection between Stark and the authority of this realm. Of course he had military connections if he built weaponry, but friendship with an officer was another asset entirely.

Now that staying awake to hear the conversation was important it became even more difficult to do so, and Loki had to suppress a yawn. He felt vulnerable enough due to his injuries, Stark would probably mock him if he fell asleep in front of them like some exhausted child.

If he didn't do so first himself. The man sat drunkenly beside Loki's feet, ignoring his confused look and leaning against the bedpost. "Well, even if it is they wouldn't let me give you CPR, so I didn't get any in my mouth."

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that to make this a little more comfortable for the both of us." The sentence winded him for its length, and despite his increased unwillingness to be anything but extremely alert around Stark he found the lack of breath was only making him more tired.

"Good."

"Tony, there's something seriously wrong with you." Pepper sighed and looked desperately to Rhodes, who was shaking his head in disbelief and didn't see.

"Narcissism, alcoholism, selfishness, a general disregard for my own welfare and rampant flirting?" Stark suggested, not sounding the least bit sorry about any of these things.

Rhodes went to add a few to the list, but Loki didn't hear them. He'd leaned his head back against the headboard, smirking slightly, to watch as the man berated himself and was suddenly finding it very difficult to lift it up again.

VVV

"…don't take anything seriously, constantly waste your money, and you're always late." James concluded dryly. "Am I missing anything?"

Tony paused for a moment to think this over then shook his head. "Nope, think you covered all the bases with that one. Got any faults to add, Pepper?"

"Is pervert implied by the rampant flirting?"

"Let's say yes."

"Then no, I think we've got the basics." She mocked with a sweet smile. "Should I compile a list that you can hand out as reference?"

"Yes, you should. Stop people from having high expectations for me." Tony agreed, fairly unsure himself whether or not he was serious.

James apparently didn't know either, because he quickly moved to change the subject. "Tony, this S.H.I.E.L.D. group you're working for, you need to tell me what they're all about. We're getting weird stories popping up all over the country and nobody will give me any details."

"Well, can't tell you then. Wouldn't want to be nobody." Tony pointed out calmly. Before his friend could respond they were interrupted by a slight rumbling sound, almost like purring.

Since he wasn't entirely certain he hadn't accidentally picked up a cat during the night Tony turned immediately to find the source of the sound. Rather than a pet he saw Loki lying with his head tipped back, mouth slightly open and eyes shut. The boy's chest rose and fell more steadily than it had the nights before, and there was no expression of pain to indicate he'd fainted. Not that there was any mistaking the two- he was strangely serene in sleep. He also seemed to be the source of that purring sound, as though he were incapable of simply snoring.

"…You two find that even a little funny? In a cute kind of way?" Tony glanced between his companions, both of whom had turned when he did, and met annoyed frowns from both. He shrugged, but didn't concede the point. "You're both liars."

"Let's go to the other room." Pepper said, and left the room with Rhodes soon after, neither of them looking back to make sure he was following. He didn't mind- he was in no hurry for a lecture- but he wished one of them had at least helped him get up. His head swam when he attempted it, and he nearly crashed into the door in his attempts to close it on the way out.

They relocated to the living room; Pepper and James on the white leather couch adjacent to the window-wall while Tony sat on the piano bench and drunkenly prodded the keys after somehow deciding he'd developed the skill to play overnight. Eventually it became clear he had no desire to initiate a conversation, and James came over to grab his friend's wrist mid-note.

"You're interrupting creative genius." Tony scolded, even though he wasn't quite drunk enough to consider the random overlapping of high pitched notes to be music.

"Tony, why the hell didn't you tell me you had a God in your house?" James demanded in a harsh whisper, as though he were afraid of being overheard. A reasonable worry, considering the amount of potentially hack-able technology in this home.

"What? I thought we still weren't sure about that?" Pepper cut in hopefully as she stood as well, though remained by the couch. "The idea of a Norse god showing up… it's ridiculous. Tony, you're an atheist."

It sounded almost as if she were pleading with him despite her rational tone, whether to see reason or to deny what James was saying he wasn't sure. Unfortunately he was inclined to do neither. "Had to come from somewhere, may as well be Asgard or whatever. Wouldn't explain why he was blue though."

"Loki was half frost giant, remember? Did you ever pay attention in that class?"

"Yes. Oh, did you mean to the course work? Definitely not."

In fact, Tony had loved Norse mythology. He'd taken the class, and dragged his friend to it, because he thought it would be interesting, not because of the teacher's looks. He hadn't even needed to- everyone seemed to forget how young he was when he first graduated college, going back hadn't been for another degree so much as a cure for boredom. If he'd been looking to pick up girls there were much better environments to do it in than a classroom.

So he knew exactly what James was talking about. Still, Pepper was right- there were probably other explanations than divinity for the mysterious surrounding Loki, but it wasn't one worth ignoring.

"Answer the question." James replied bluntly, in one of his no-nonsense moods that really did not coincide well with a hung-over Tony Stark.

"You asked two, I picked the one I liked best."

"You don't know." Pepper confirmed in disbelief. "So you're both actually considering this. Okay, well, tell me one thing- do you _think_ he's a god?"

Tony actually had to think that one over for a moment, though he knew they would take his hesitation as a joke, and no wonder. He did love his sarcasm. But when he responded it was in all seriousness, whether or not they believed it. "Yes."

Pepper buried her face in her hands and sat back down, shaking her head in disbelief. Either she refused to believe him or she thought he'd finally succeeded in drinking himself into idiocy, but James knew better. He must have seen the same thing Tony had- the regality and confidence in those cold eyes that no mortal, not even the Iron Man, could mimic.

"So, if he really _is_ a god, what are we supposed to do?" She wondered at last, an attempt to sound skeptical coming out merely as unnerved.

"I dunno. Sacrifice a bull or something?"

"That's Greek." James reminded quickly, probably fearing his friend would actually go out and kill some cattle. "Tony, if you don't call this in, I'm going to. It's dangerous for the government not to know about this."

"Sure, because they'll just let him stay here and get better, right?" Tony replied sarcastically. "You going running back to them and he'll be dragged off to some testing facility in no time. Look how crazy they went over the suits, and last I checked those things aren't from another realm of existence."

The lieutenant sighed and glanced at the watch, frowning as he realized there was no more time to berate Tony. "Pepper, you talk some sense into him. I've got to get to work."

"You're abandoning the lady to a hopeless cause."

"She's got a better chance than I do. For his sake let's hope you listen."

Pepper stood to lead him to the door but Tony remained behind, not even following with his eyes. They'd teamed up on him many times before, and he'd always managed to ignore them without any guilt. But there was a high chance one of them would find a way to bring this issue to Coulson or Fury, and S.H.I.E.L.D. was a lot harder to ignore.

**A/N: Aaaaand there you go. Plot development, yay! I feel like I'm writing Tony's house wrong, but there's not really a layout for it and the one in my mind is extremely scrambled, so excuse the geographical confusion.**

**As always, please review! I'm always nervous that I've scared you all off, so I really appreciate a little feedback to let me know people are reading.(Because I'm silly and paranoid. Yay.)  
><strong>


	5. What They Know Know Might Hurt Him

**A/N: Hello once again, fellow TonyLoki fans! Thanks for the feedback, as always, and I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. I've been dying to write this part since I started the story, so I hope you have fun reading it. And just a head's up- I have finals next week, and chapter 6 is going to be **_**really**_** long, so it might take awhile for me to post it. Sorry for the potential delay.**

**Disclaimer: Marvel copyright Stan Lee (and by some weird display of corporate and economic influence, Disney.)**

****VVV

Loki was beginning to fear for his mental state as well as the physical. The concept of becoming stir crazy had never applied to him, though Thor often complained of it before embarking on some foolish mission in which his brother was forcibly brought along to relieve the boredom. The other Asgardians were free to practice their swordplay and break each other's bones in training, Loki would merely watch for hours at a time, hardly moving. His body was well-trained, but it was his mind he preferred to exercise.

Yet after awaking yet again to the same view with the same pain and in the same position he felt a frustration he could only classify as "stir crazy". Perhaps he would have been able to deal with the situation if he could focus his mind on any topic other than the events that had taken him away from Asgard, but whenever there was no immediate distraction this proved impossible. Every time Thor or Odin came to mind- his wretched last moments with either, or their expressions as he fell- he was almost glad for the pain. It fragmented those memories, though it unfortunately did the same for his thoughts.

Therefore Loki took a moment to comprehend Stark's presence in the room, and when he had was relieved despite himself. True sleep, and not drug or pain induced unconscious, had brought with it unpleasant dreams- and the man was uncouth enough to distract even from those thoughts.

"Can I expect to wake without you by my bedside in the near future or would this be unreasonable?" Loki wondered dryly.

"I'll always be there when you wake up." The bearded man teased, his tone making it very difficult to realize this was meant as a joke. "Or maybe I just didn't leave."

For a moment he was puzzled, but Loki's eyes widened slightly as he remembered drifting off not only in Stark's company, but that of Pepper and Rhodes. "I wasn't asleep." He lied hastily, a pitiful attempt for anybody, and absolutely ridiculous for him.

"You were snoring." His host pointed out cheerfully. "Kind of purred, actually."

"..." Loki stared back impassively at the other man, though it was unusually difficult not to protest. Purring was not a sound he would have liked associated with him. It was probably in his best interest to change the subject, especially considering Stark still seemed a little drunk and might be a bit looser with his tongue.

"You said before that you knew what I was going through." Loki recalled, earning a nod in reply. "How so?"

Stark tapped his fist against the glowing circle centered in his chest, creating a muffled clank. "You guys have bombs wherever you come from?"

"No, but I know what they are."

"Well I got hit with one. I woke up in a cave with a magnet strapped to a car battery stuck in my chest. Guys who brought me there said I had a week to live without it before the shrapnel would reach my heart and kill me. They told me to make them a weapon, so I made this instead and got myself out of there. Took me three months to get away."

Loki raised an eyebrow, surprised despite himself not just at the casual tone with which Stark spoke but the fact that such a careless man had actually undergone hardship. Not that he hadn't heard, and in fact been involved in, far worse stories back home. Still, for a mortal he knew that sort of thing was far from common.

"You're all right with telling me this?" He wondered after a moment's silence.

Stark merely shrugged, with a nonchalant air that appeared to be genuine, and Loki was very good at reading people's emotions. "Yup. It was all over the news, 'cept people were more interested when I announced that I was going to stop making weapons."

"Well, it seems there is something you can be serious about."

"I made weapons to protect the people of this country. The guys who captured me used my own stuff to kill those people. I did what I did for peace, not money. I have a lot of that off inheritance alone." Stark pointed out with a sobriety that barely reflected in his expression. He seemed to have something against showing emotion, or perhaps he just hadn't learned how. The Asgardians were different. They'd all learned that there was no use and no honor in hiding your emotions, except perhaps for Hogun who rarely had any, and tears weren't uncommon even from Thor. Loki doubted Stark had cried in years.

Which only meant he was more vulnerable. Loki now knew the best way to gain access to the technology and mind of Tony Stark, but he couldn't do it lying on a bed. Three months the engineer had been in captivity- Loki was not willing to wait that long.

The young god closed his eyes and held his breath in preparation, grabbing the headboard with his good arm before swinging his legs over the side of the bed to bring himself into a sitting position. He'd been hoping to avoid twisting his torso, but even so the movement brought fire to his stomach and he clenched his teeth against the nausea that followed. Stark's eyes widened, but to his credit he said nothing as Loki regained his breath from the effort, nor even when he moved to stand. He'd never thought about how even the smallest movements engaged the stomach until that moment, and the pain of it caused him to devour breath at a rapid rate, straining his broken chest. Rather than cry out, that would defeat the purpose of showing Stark his health anyway, he squeezed his eyes shut and tilted his head back to make it easier to breath, though he was still doing so in short, rapid intervals.

When he opened his eyes again Stark was staring at him, expression neutral as ever as he looked up at his guest, who was evidently a fair five inches taller. He opened his mouth but gave no reprimand, no inquiry about his health, merely said, "So I guess I owe you dinner."

* * *

><p>The water pouring in streams down Loki's back was so hot the shower door was grey with steam, and his skin burnt on contact with it. Though he'd never liked heat, and only recently discovered why this was, he found the temperature a welcome relief. It stung his cuts and scrapes but soothed his muscle, though he had to keep the pressure low and even the light drizzling would sometimes hit a bruise the wrong way. He was exhausted merely from standing, holding himself up with his right arm pressed to the wall while he stretched the left experimentally. That, too, benefited from the water- though he could still hardly bend it at all.<p>

Still, Loki was glad he'd given into Stark's insistence that he relax in the shower- what the Midgardians apparently used in place of baths. Though he was dizzy with the effort of staying conscious he already appreciated the difference in how he felt. He hadn't even noticed how many bruises and scrapes he had on his face alone, and as he leaned back to let the water hit these wounds he was aware of pain he hadn't recognized being washed away. He knew he must have been dirty too, but was reluctant to touch the bottle of what appeared to be liquid soap that Stark had tossed to him, claiming it was meant for his hair.

As if his hair was any worry right now. Loki'd made the mistake of glancing down earlier and cringed not only at his brutalized body but the water that ran pink with blood beneath it. The cut on his side he'd torn open yet again with all his movement, and others were sealed with a layer of dried blood now pouring down the drain. It hurt, but it was probably for the better. Though he was no expert in healing Loki had often been reminded of the importance of washing out a deep wound, something he always cringed at while the others had no qualms going so far as to burn their injuries to prevent infection.

Even Sif, woman though she was, never flinched at battle wounds or grotesque healing methods. And there were quite a bit of those, even in training, when you were friends with Thor.

_ "You really should have a healer on watch during these games of yours, Thor." Loki scolded, watching Sif shove away Fandral as the blond man attempted to help her up, apologizing ceaselessly for the cut that had knocked her down in the first place. _

_ His brother merely laughed and clapped him on the back, a force that no longer knocked him forward but hurt all the same. "The warriors three are no strangers to injury, brother! A healer would be an insult."_

_ Loki merely shook his head, smiling despite himself. "Warriors are such fools."_

_ "Fools? You're one of the smartest people I know." Thor protested._

_ "I'm no warrior."_

_ "Don't be ridiculous." His laugh was even louder than before, making the words almost indistinguishable. "Brother, you've fought beside me more times than any of them has. Your fancy tricks are almost as good a weapon as my mjolnir."_

_ "Almost? I don't seem to recall mjolnir being the thing to light our way out of a cavern. Though it _was_ what started it collapsing." Loki retorted, and Thor merely laughed again before Fandral called for him and the older brother ran to join his friends while the younger watched, shaking his head._

Loki shut his eyes and pressed his forehead to the steam-heated wall, whether to push the memory aside or to preserve it from being washed away he did not know.

* * *

><p>VVV<p>

"Pepper, he stood up." Tony blurted the moment she had answered the phone, his excitement evident in the fact that he had barely waited to leave the boy's room before calling.

"What? Who, Loki?" Pepper wondered, sounding amazed. "He- is he okay? Oh my God, Tony you shouldn't have let him do that."

"Don't think I could have stopped him." Tony admitted. "Pepper, think you could grab Chinese on the way back?"

"I can't _believe_ you're thinking about food right now."

"Told 'im I'd buy him dinner when he was better." He protested.

"Tony…. Fine. What do I get?"

"Dunno, so long as it's food and not spicy." He had a feeling that Loki, though apparently strong enough to stand and eat, would probably be sick if he ate anything too strong.

"All right. Don't let him hurt himself any more before I get there." She warned before hanging up without giving him a chance to make the sarcastic retort waiting on his tongue.

Amused, Tony quit the call and re-pocketed his phone. He glanced around boredly, frustrated by his lack of success with Loki's cube and unable to entertain himself bothering the boy, who was still in the shower at his suggestion. His only real option was to hold a conversation with Jarvis, since he couldn't even leave the house unless Loki fell asleep again. He'd have to buy the boy a phone one of these days.

Tony descended the stairs to his workshop, thinking he could at least play around with some of the equipment down there. His cars were not only finely tuned but had gotten new paint jobs only two weeks ago, and his iron man suits were as destructive as he was comfortable with. Maybe he could work on the portable one, the thing had only seen one use in fighting with Vanko but it had been damn useful all the same.

With the new element his father had left him the suit could end up at least as powerful as his standard ones had been before, and hopefully more durable than it had been. He'd probably keep the shape at least, the briefcase worked well.

He made his way over to his worktable and began to clear it off- he always left half his latest project lying about. A loud drum solo began to blare in the background which, considering he hadn't yet told Jarvis to play any music, meant someone was calling the house phone.

"Pick that up on speaker." Tony called, preferring to keep his hands free as he pulled aside a half sheet of metal. There was a box full of work tools too heavy for him to easily lift lying beside that, and he beckoned for his robot, aptly named Dummy, to help him with it.

"Certainly, sir." Jarvis replied, the call connecting with a loud click over the stereo.

"Mr. Stark?" Nick Fury's voice, calm and deeply sarcastic in its essence, was unmistakable even to Tony, who had never heard him over the phone before. "We've got something we'd like you to come take a look at."

"Sorry, Iron man's not on the phone right now, and last I checked I'm just a consultant." Tony replied calmly, though the annoyance was anything less than subtle in his words. The robot seemed to be having trouble picking the box up, so he shoved the sheet in its direction and took up that burden himself.

"We're consulting you." Fury replied dryly, as ever unfazed by his so-called wit. "Your father got his hands on an extremely powerful energy source awhile back and we've called in an expert to take a look at it. We want you to give him a hand."

"I don't play well with others. Especially not as partners- unless this guy's smarter than me, in which case I'm not really necessary." An unlikely alternative, and they both knew it. Arrogant though he may be to admit it, Tony was one of the best minds on the planet.

"He knows the field but we need you to back him up with theory and general science." The other man replied with exaggerated patience. "We're set up outside Albuquerque, New Mexico- get over here by tomorrow night."

"You finally gonna tell me why I'm looking out for space storms?" Tony wondered, recalling Coulson mentioning when he gave the order that he should pay special attention to that state. He'd assumed this meant other anomalies had occurred there, and Fury'd just confirmed that.

"Maybe. Oh, and Tony?"

"Yes, mom?"

"Bring your friend."

Tony froze, hand extended to pull a welding gun out of the box he'd successfully carted aside. The comment was followed by a soft click and then a hollow tone that ceased as Jarvis cut the connection. As it wheeled over to place the metal sheet beside the tools Dummy bumped its load against the counter and dropped it with a heavy clang that his creator hardly noticed, heart pounding blood with a rush that hurt his head.

It was possible that Fury had been talking about Rhodes, but Tony, never the optimist, doubted it. He'd have just said as much, rather than cut off ominously afterward. The leader of S.H.I.E.L.D. was letting him panic over the brief indecision, letting him come to the realization on his own.

"Debug the line wired to the suit, someone's hacked into it. Get them out of there and bring up audio files of everything that's been on there in the last two months, red light whatever's been listened in on." Tony demanded, rushing over to his primary suit and pulling the helmet off to pull apart at the table. The thing was supposed to be his tightest piece of security- he had override systems for every sort of invasion, how had S.H.I.E.L.D. tapped his call to Pepper? Then again, Fury had known about his program to shut down on anybody who stole the suit- he must've gotten into its hard drive to learn that and hacked it then.

"It may take some time to detect the infected lines, sir." Jarvis apologized, the screen already running the scan.

"Check the house first. They compromise you?" Despite himself Tony was anxious, he was closer to the personality he'd programmed than to all but a few close friends. If S.H.I.E.L.D. had hacked Jarvis not only could they get at a ton of his most important data, but clearing the virus could be dangerous to the computer itself.

"The main computer's security has not been breached, sir." Tony nodded, relaxed. He'd given that thing constant checks and updates since the day it had been built, but he wasn't very confident in his firewall right now.

"Good." He'd succeeded in opening the helmet, revealing the machinery underneath. The service he used wasn't a local provider, one perk of all his money was a private line and the router for that was nowhere S.H.I.E.L.D. knew about. They could, however, have gotten into it through the suit. Especially since he'd never had an issue with Natasha wandering wherever she liked in the house.

Half an hour of careful searching revealed that there was no device planted on the thing, but that wasn't the only way they could have gotten into it. Still, he had to rely on Jarvis to reveal any other problems.

"Sir, Mrs. Potts and Mr. Loki are waiting for you in the kitchen." The computer called, probably not for the first time. Tony zoned out when he became as absorbed with a project as he had been there.

"All right. Cancel everything you're running but the house's security, focus on the scan." He demanded, snatching up the handful of tools he'd been using and throwing them out of the way in a vain attempt at organization before leaving the room.

He was still mulling over how he could have missed his systems being compromised when he reached the kitchen, Pepper and Loki gathered around the island on chairs she'd probably pulled from the bedrooms. He really needed a dining room one of these days, but he'd never had many guests.

"What's wrong?"

For a moment Tony was too surprised that Loki had recognized his distraction before Pepper had to reply, and that shock was quickly replaced by another. The man had somehow come by clothing, a New York style trench made of cotton over an equally black shirt barely visible under the coat and a scarf that trailed down his back. The outfit definitely wasn't something one would find in Tony's house.

"You borrow Pepper's clothes or something?" He wondered, not bothering to rephrase the potential insult. Really, the coat was fairly feminine, but it fit Loki better than being bare-chested had.

"I don't think they would fit." The boy replied, amused. "But that doesn't answer my question."

VVV

Pepper was looking at Loki, whether impressed or stunned, with the utmost surprise. They'd both only glanced at the man, but he'd been able to tell immediately that Stark was off-kilter. He had been late coming upstairs, Jarvis could be heard calling him at least three times after Pepper's own shout, which was likely a normal occurrence, but not that night. Loki had promised to tell Stark where he'd come from, and that he hadn't rushed up immediately was proof alone he was distracted.

"No, it really doesn't, huh?" Stark mused as he came to join them, digging through the bag his friend had brought and pulling out a handful of white, cardboard containers- the tops of which were wet with steam. Following that-

"You eat with sticks?" Loki wondered before he could stop himself, having just torn the packaging on the thin container Stark had handed him to reveal two long, dulled sticks attached at the base.

"They're for Chinese food." Pepper explained. "Normally we use forks, but in Asia they eat with chopsticks."

"Asia?"

"It's another continent. We've got seven." Stark's sarcasm almost made him sound as though he were proud of the fact. "Masses of land, divided into countries. Ring any bells?"

Loki vaguely recalled similar systems during his last visit to earth, but he tended to avoid the place and could only vaguely remember various human governments at war. "Another culture. It's much simpler where I come from, we have one ruler and one land to be ruled."

"Cool. World domination, sounds fun."

Pepper couldn't restrain herself the way Stark did, and while he continued to prepare the food she turned eagerly to her guest, though she did her best to hide her excitement. "Where _do_ you come from?"

"Don't kill the surprise yet." Stark cut in, aiming his chopsticks at Loki as though they were a weapon. For all he knew they could be, they hardly seemed appropriate as utensils. "Let's save the story for when I show him off to Fury."

Loki and Pepper spoke at once then, though on completely different topics.

"Show me off?" "You're going to S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

"Yes." The man paused for a moment, processing the other statement. "And yes."

"Should I be concerned that he's referring to me as though I were his girlfriend?" Loki wondered dryly.

"I would be." The engineer conceded, and Loki considered this for a moment before nodding. Pepper, however, had other priorities.

"What made you change your mind? It wasn't us, you never listen to me _or_ James." She demanded, stepping between him and the food to remove the distraction.

"He called me. Wants us to go out to New Mexico tomorrow night."

"What?"

"I know, why do I keep going to all these boring places?"

"That's not the point, Tony. How did he know Loki was here?"

Good question. Loki hadn't even been aware that his presence in the house was a secret, though at least this explained Stark's distraction. He obviously found this to be a negative, though the secret himself couldn't have been happier to have been found out. S.H.I.E.L.D. was the name of that government organization they'd been whispering about the day he'd woken up, the one Stark worked for. He'd been worrying about how he was going to get the man to take him along without having to waste his magic on tracking him, this only simplified the matter.

Or maybe not. Loki grimaced as his stomach reminded him with a flare of pain that he'd given his body quite enough abuse lately. The trip to New Mexico, wherever that might be, was going to be painful. But Stark wouldn't insist he remain behind, he hadn't even questioned the clothing beyond its origin. It was an illusion of course- real cloth would have been too much abuse for his chest to handle- but one that had served its purpose in convincing his hosts he'd recovered more than he had.

"I'll look forward to it." He replied honestly, an encouraging smile hiding the smirk that threatened to play at his lips. "Now what exactly is all this?"

Stark had opened the cardboard containers, revealing tightly packed meats and noodles in sauces Loki didn't recognize, along with what appeared to be bleached rice. "Culturally deficient Chinese food. Try it."

Pepper, rolling her eyes at the explanation, handed him a plate. He thanked her, staring suspiciously at the food that covered it and hoping it was far less filling than it looked. Judging by the size of that drink she'd given him days before, however, the amount of food was going to be at least as painful to finish.

If he could even figure out how, considering he was attempting to eat with twigs. Loki pulled them apart once he'd see the other two do the same, and from that point he was absolutely lost. Most of what he was eating seemed fairly thick, so he jabbed at the meat experimentally and caught a piece of orange-coated chicken on the end of it. It was the most logical step, considering the way one ate with a fork, but Pepper grinned when she saw what he was doing and even Stark smirked a little.

"Okay, big guy, like this." He lifted his own chopsticks, holding them apart like tongs between his fingers, and picked up a clump of rice on the end while his other hand kept his head propped up lazily. Then, when Loki opened his mouth to ask what the point of eating that way could possibly be, fed him the grain, looking almost bored.

Out of surprise more than actual reflex Loki coughed and drew back suddenly, the sharp movement bringing a true cough to his throat which he attempted to cover by pressing his fist against his mouth. Pepper hurried to pour him a glass of water after shouting something at Stark, who looked as though he were uncertain whether to be amused or apologetic.

Loki managed to swallow the rice, cringing at the pain coughing had brought both to his ribs and stomach, and glared at the other man. "Never feed me again. I don't care if I break every bone in my body and can't serve myself. That was awful."

"What, you really expected any better of me?" Stark wondered with a pointed look.

"I'm beginning to think I shouldn't."

"Here." Pepper returned and offered him a glass cup filed with water, which he gratefully accepted and drank as quickly as his bruised abdomen would allow. "_Tony_."

"I'd apologize, but that was too perfect of an opportunity. I'd have felt worse if I missed it."

"You can be an ass to anyone else, but show a little more respect for a god."

Her eyes widened as soon as she'd made the retort, and she turned to Loki not with fear but anxiety, almost as if she thought she might offend him. He set his glass down and resisted the urge to wipe his mouth on his sleeve, reminding himself it was only an illusion, careful to do so slowly, as if thinking something over. This seemed to have some effect in increasing her nervousness at least- a simple calm movement was enough to unsettle the majority of humans. They really were easily impressed.

"That's a bit hasty. I haven't even told my story yet." Loki scolded with a teasing smile. "You'll have to find out tomorrow. Though if I am you'll really have something to… what was it? Show off?"

Pepper seemed embarrassed, but Stark didn't miss a beat. Most of the other Asgardians loved mortals to be obsequies and trembling with awe, but Loki felt he rather liked the man's backbone. "Depends on how pretty you look."

"I think I'd rather you be the pretty one. Pepper and I can dress you up and present you as our date." Loki retorted, entirely undaunted.

The reply seemed to catch Stark slightly off guard, though he seemed pleased with it. "Pepper, what do you think? Next time we go out we'll both be woman- New York'll love us."

"No." Though her reactions were a little muddled when it came to the stranger he'd brought home she rarely seemed to have trouble dealing with her boss. "You two can go ahead, but Fury will probably fire you."

"Even better."

"You don't seem to like him very much." Loki noted, recalling Fury's name from earlier in the conversation. He seemed to be an official of this S.H.I.E.L.D. group.

"I don't like faceless organizations in general. They always mean trouble, and they're usually the ones looking for the biggest toy to blow someone up with." Stark's frown was a mark against such habits, though judging by what Loki knew he could thank such organizations for the majority of his wealth.

If S.H.I.E.L.D. was not only stocking up on weapons but as secretive as they claimed then he knew its members were privy to extremely important, extremely dangerous information. The wear and tear on his body aside, this was looking out to be a very beneficial trip.

**A/N: Oh hey, look at that. A plot. Where'd that come from?**

**Anyway, I've been dying to write this chapter for way too long. Both Fury's little reveal and the part with the chopsticks are snippets I thought up before I even started writing this, and I hope both came out pretty well.**

**Reviews always appreciated, and a happy almost-holidays to you! Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go attempt to understand the dreadful thing that is stoichiometry. (I was way too tempted to write "I'm off to destroy Jotunheim" there.)**


	6. SHIELD

**A/N: I'm sure the length of this chapter's made it pretty clear why I took so long to post… I just couldn't find a place I liked to stop, so I wrote you guys up about 20 pages of plot exposition (took me long enough, right?). A huge thank you to everyone who reviewed, you guys make it writing this so worthwhile. (I promise I won't shove huge chapters like this at you again, I really don't know how it got so long…)**

**Oh, and a format issue: I just now noticed that three dashes don't show up on , so PoV changes will now be shown with VVV. **

**Disclaimer: Still don't own Marvel, but let me know if I ever do. That'd be awesome.**

Pepper drove in the car with them on the way to the airport, where Stark explained there was something called a plane they'd be travelling in. Loki had never heard the term before, but then again neither had he been inside a car until that day. He didn't feel he'd been missing much, he was required to sit in an uncomfortable position and his stomach was in constant pain for the duration of the trip.

"I'm guessing Fury wasn't courteous enough to tell you when you'd be coming back." Pepper wondered as she bade them farewell, Stark staying behind to say goodbye while Loki stared in confusion at the metal tube in front of him. It looked as if someone had merely attached wings to a cylinder- they weren't meant to ride the thing, were they?

"You guess right." Stark replied pleasantly, as though complementing her on this. "Don't I get a kiss goodbye?"

"Finish this trip without getting arrested and maybe we'll see." The girl retorted, shoving a duffel bag into his arms when he came closer for the requested kiss.

"Don't worry, I'm sure we'll find someone to kiss you." Loki assured, grinning when the man nodded in agreement. Evidently he wasn't too concerned he would be accused of being an unfaithful boyfriend- though it seemed Pepper knew what she was getting by being involved with him.

"Any takers? What about you honey?" The woman Stark was addressing- a clean cut girl in a military-reminiscent uniform- rolled her eyes and brushed past him on her way into the airplane. "Can I take that as a no?"

"You finally hired a flight attendant who isn't a stripper?" Pepper actually sounded impressed by this, which wasn't exactly a recommendation to Stark's behavior.

"Nope, she just won't let me touch her."

"Little wonder why." Loki cut in dryly. "I'm not entirely sure where we're going but it seems to be important, so if you don't mind, Pepper, we should probably be on our way."

"Right. Loki, please keep him out of trouble. Tony, don't let S.H.I.E.L.D. bully him." She demanded, giving them both warning looks indicating they would highly regret ignoring the orders.

"So he can let them bully me?" Stark wondered with mock offense.

"Yes."

"Ouch."

"Goodbye, Tony." Pepper smiled slightly, a rare sight but one of the few that seemed to bring a similar expression to her employer's lips, and left with the well dressed man who had driven them here. He hadn't said a word the entire day, which Loki might have found disquieting if he weren't so used to such behavior. He'd grown up with his own servants, after all.

"So explain more to me, what exactly is this organization we're going to meet?" Loki wondered once she was gone and Stark had begun to make his own way towards the ramp.

"You know, I really don't know." The man shrugged, though the attempt to cover his annoyance at this was unsuccessful. "Protecting the world, one superhero at a time."

"Superheroes?" The term was… rather ridiculous. A "super" hero would just be someone exceedingly heroic, would it not? "And would you be one of them?"

"Of course I would." He replied modestly. "I protect the weak and the poor, or something like that."

"Of course you do." Loki rolled his eyes and took a step onto the stairs, wincing as he attempted to move further. The upward movement engaged his stomach, which was not kind to his over-worked body.

Stark seemed to notice this, because he stopped his own ascent and came back down, taking Loki's upper arm and ignoring his protests. "See? I'm being heroic now. Most people help old ladies cross the street, I'm being refreshing and helping tough young men."

It was hard to tell what was more grating- the smug tone of voice or the fact that Loki couldn't do anything but accept his help. "How is it everything you say sounds flirtatious?" He wondered dryly, earning only a wink in response.

As soon as they were on the plane Loki pulled away from the other man before he'd even taken a look at his surroundings. The interior was much more refined than the image a hollowed metal tube generally created, with a few plush, roomy booths each with a circular dent in the arm rest, probably intended to hold alcohol considering there seemed to be quite a bit of that on board. Tony beckoned for a girl dressed in the same outfit they'd seen earlier to come bring them both something from the bar not far off from the seats, but by the time he had Loki was already filling a glass with a thick amber liquid- closest to anything he'd seen on Asgard.

"You're gonna have more alcohol than blood in you if you drink that." Stark warned, though he sounded less like he was attempting to discourage him than making sure he had the knowledge. "You still bleeding?"

"I don't know." Loki admitted, smiling at the girl's expression as she looked between them. "What is this?"

"Whiskey."

"That sounds disgusting." He laughed, nonetheless swallowing the liquid in one or two gulps, only removing the cup from his lips once he'd drained the glass.

Stark stared at him for a moment, looking impressed, and nodded as Loki refilled his glass. "If you stay conscious for the rest of this trip then that was pretty impressive."

"Does it count if you talk me to sleep?" The young god wondered dryly, passing by him to take a seat on one of the cushioned benches. They had reclined backs, so his torso didn't bend the way it had in the car and he was able to relax his sore body for the first time in hours. Maybe it would be hard not to fall asleep- but certainly not because of the drink. Earth alcohol was, though sweeter than ale, very weak.

"No, but only because my voice is so soothing." Stark assured with a voice that was anything but, sitting across from Loki with his own glass of what appeared to be water but must have been some form of alcoholic drink itself.

"With enough of this it will be." He retorted, lifting the drink- what had Stark called it, whiskey?- and taking a mouthful. It burnt his throat on the way down, and his stomach was already hot with the last gulp, but the sensation wasn't painful. Nor was it numbing- he'd have to have quite a bit more for that effect.

"You'd think you'd have learned to appreciate my wit by now. It's been what, five days since you woke up?" Stark took a sip, considerably smaller than Loki's, from his own glass and swished the liquid around in his mouth as obviously as possible before swallowing.

"Wit? Is that what you call it?"

"Yeah. Do I want to hear what _you_ call it?"

"Narcissism would be the textbook definition." Loki pointed out and couldn't help smirking as he made a connection. "Starkissism. Fits, doesn't it?"

"I like that. I'll get a shirt that says "I'm starkissistic"- rolls off the tongue and lowers people's expectations without me even having to open my mouth."

"And then when you do they're lowered even further."

"Exactly, time efficiency. Can't spend every conversation prepping people for talking to me, you know."

"Oh, you're not quite that bad. The people back home are at least as eccentric as you… though far more annoying." Loki was unable to keep the venom from his voice at the end, but Stark remained as practiced at ever in that regard and somehow knew to ignore this. That was one testament to his personality, at least.

"So they'll all react like you?" The idea seemed to please Stark, at any rate he took a moment to imagine the possibilities this presented. "So I wouldn't scare anybody away, and I'd be a pleasant surprise for once. I like this place already."

Loki couldn't imagine the man mixed in with Asgardian culture, regardless of the similar preferences for flirtation and alcohol. He certainly didn't seem like a fighter, and it would probably not be best to tell him that that was the primary attraction factor in the realm. Not that even that would discourage Stark, though the fact that no mortal who was not wed to an Aesir was admitted there might.

Eventually Loki did sleep, though not because of the alcohol or even Stark's conversation- which didn't cease until the man fell asleep himself, having called for endless refills on his drink. The young god had spoken, eaten, and walked more that morning than his body could readily stand, and even then he'd done no more than walk from the home to the car and the car to the plane- no more than fifty feet in all. Yet the effort of it all still left him short of breath, and his arm flared with pain whenever he attempted to use it, having discarded its sling. Now that he wasn't constantly recovering internal tears his energy might actually begin to help him heal the injuries that caused them, and maybe, _just_ maybe, he was hoping to remember as little of the trip as possible.

However impressive human technology may be, Loki could think of nothing but falling as the plane soared through the air.

* * *

><p>Tony did his best to keep his friend on the plane, insisting he'd be better off waiting until they forced him to come meet them, but Loki wouldn't hear of it. If he'd been dealing with someone conscious that he was a prince he would expect them to come to him, but to avoid this "Fury" man would seem a sign of weakness considering he was unaware of this. So the two left the plane together, stepping out to heavy sand and a short, grey building of stone with nothing of interest save a set of cast iron doors visible even from where they had landed.<p>

A group of people was waiting for them- at their front an old, dark skinned man in a trench coat whose eye patch reminded Loki of his father more than he would have liked. Behind him was a tall, confident man in a suit who seemed entirely unbothered by the squad of armed soldiers in heavy black armor behind him.

Stark stepped forward to address the man at the front, looking amused. "You miss me, Dear?"

"You're late, Tony." The man replied impassively. "This your friend?"

"Or his girlfriend, depending on if you're Fury and whether or not he's showing me off." Loki explained before he could stop himself, reaching out to shake the man's hand and vaguely impressed to find him unfazed by the comment.

"Good. I'm Colonel Nick Fury, director of S.H.I.E.L.D. I'm assuming Tony's told you about us?"

"No more than he's told you about me. I figured it was a fair exchange, though then again _I_ have reason to be interested in _you_. I'm curious as to why you insisted I be dragged out to the middle of the dessert with only a day's notice."

Fury glanced towards Stark, who was smiling and nodding appreciatively. "See why I keep him around?"

"Hmph. That will all be explained in due time. For now I'd like to know more about you, starting with your name." He turned to Loki with a cold look he no doubt assumed was intimidating- it was always funny when the mortals thought themselves frightening.

Though this one, at least, didn't flinch when the look was returned as mortals usually did. "Loki Laufeyson. Or Odinson, if you're not entirely up to date on your Norse mythology."

The man in the suit came up to whisper something in Fury's ear, and he nodded briefly. His companion went to speak with the soldiers and Stark narrowed his eyes, taking a step forward. "Send off your boys with the guns, Fury."

"Relax, Tony. If he doesn't hurt anyone they won't hurt him." He replied without deigning to give the man even a glance in response, eyes fixed on Loki's.

Behind him the soldiers seemed to have received their orders, each nodding and then jogging forward to form a formidable circle around the small group, guns fixated on the trickster god. He glanced at them curiously, unconcerned and confident in the fact that despite his injuries he could defeat them if need be and more interested in how they knew he wasn't their friend based only on his name.

"I have some questions to ask you, Mr. Laufeyson." Said the man in the suit, stepping forward calmly to address Loki as though he hadn't just ordered armed men to threaten him. "I'm agent Coulson, also of S.H.I.E.L.D."

The man's smile was so painfully self confident that Loki couldn't resist the urge to stare down at him until he shifted his gaze, looking uncomfortable. Stark, who had opened his mouth to argue with Fury, nodded his approval.

"Found a bigger bully, Coulson?"

"We're not the bad guys here, Mr. Stark." The man sounded as though he'd said this many times, and probably gained no more reaction than the raised eyebrow he did now.

"Says the man threatening to kill an injured stranger."

"Oh, they wouldn't be able to kill me, but thank you for worrying." Loki replied with an unconcerned laugh, which brought a satisfying frown from Coulson. "Perhaps I'll answer your questions, but only if you explain the guns."

"We've met your brother." Coulson replied sharply, and only then did Loki recognize him. They'd met through the Destroyer's eyes- the same ridiculous mortal who had challenged the machine with a silly tube emphasizing his voice in an attempt to assert his authority.

Loki grinned, realizing Thor had told them about him at some point during his visit to Earth. Or else they'd looked up his name after hearing the thunder god address his "brother" while he destroyed the town. "So you have. Lead the way."

"Whoa, I'm going with him." Stark cut in as the soldiers moved in to surround Loki alone, stepping up to Fury and grabbing his shoulder as he moved to follow them.

The man remained perfectly impassive, not even bothering to brush the hand away. "We have other work for you, Tony."

"Except I don't work for you, Iron Man does. Unless you want my inanimate suit to help this scientist for you you're gonna let me go along." Stark didn't so much as flinch, and for a moment Loki wondered vaguely at the confusion the soldiers must be feeling. Between himself, Stark, Fury and even Coulson there were four highly intimidating men facing off around them and remaining entirely unresponsive to each other's peculiarities.

"We'll let you speak to your friend after we've made sure he isn't dangerous." Coulson replied impatiently, giving Loki a smirk that implied they'd already made their decision regarding that matter.

"In the mean time Tony, you'll come with me. I have something to show you." Fury demanded, waiting until Stark had reluctantly nodded before turning and making his way towards the main entrance of the building.

Stark didn't follow until Loki, amused, had given him a reassuring look. The man was oddly attached for somebody who seemed so indifferent all the time, then again with all his earlier talk of peace he probably hated the idea of leaving anybody in danger who was unable to defend themselves.

But Loki had no such restrictions.

Coulson met Loki's eye and beckoned with his head for him to follow, leading the soldiers on their own march towards the building's side. He followed without a word, meeting the nervous glance of one of the soldiers with a pleasant smirk. The man looked away, gripping the gun he held so tightly that the leather of his gloves was stretched.

They reached a door of black metal, with a mechanical control panel beside it that Coulson began to punch numbers into. He afterwards scanned a thumbprint, and moved to do something else when the thing suddenly beeped confirmation and swung the door open for him.

He turned back, eyes narrowed, to see Loki raising an eyebrow at him as if to say 'Yes? What would you like?'The agent frowned but said nothing and led them further into the hall, the door slamming shut as soon as the last soldier had entered and trapping them within the confines of a narrow, pale white hallway. With some reluctance Loki's guard was reduced to one on each side while quite a few remained in the front and the back, watching him warily. As they passed an intersection Loki froze, catching sight of a nervous looking older man walking down that hallway. An old man he'd seen running about with his brother and that damned woman.

One of the soldiers jammed him in the back with his gun to urge him forward, unfortunately hitting a damaged rib directly. Caught off guard Loki couldn't prevent a brief cry of pain, which despite stifling almost immediately caused Coulson to turn to him thoughtfully. Quickly regaining his composure, the dark god forced himself to continue walking even though he could barely breathe for pain and fear of harming his lung again.

Therefore when they finally reached their destination he was almost tempted to forgo his plan simply for the sake of sitting down and recovering. But the door was still open, and he had no time to wait. When the soldier behind him moved to leave the room at Coulson's beckoning Loki performed the most complicated feat of magic he'd dared since injuring himself. In the split second he had to remain completely still he formed a double image of himself and put on a veil of invisibility at the same time, sending the doppelganger following the agent as he himself slipped unnoticed outside. Once he was satisfied that neither the soldiers nor Coulson had noticed anything Loki, smirking to himself, backtracked until he reached the crossing where he'd seen the old man.

He was nowhere to be seen, but the hall lead in a straight line as far as Loki could see, so he followed after in pursuit. A shame he couldn't go beyond a limping pace thanks to that idiot mortal, but he was confident he was at least faster than the nervous old man had been. Before long the hall reached a door, and he debated whether or not it would be worth the risk to open it when a pair of men in carefully pressed suits exited it, letting it swing wide to shut behind them and, engaged as they were in conversation, didn't notice it held in an unseen hand that paused to catch the end of their discussion.

"So how long's Fury gonna make the poor guy wait in there?"

"Dunno. Long enough to freak him out, I guess. Or at least until he finds somebody to guide him- who wants to babysit some scientist?"

"Heck, I'd take the guy if that place didn't creep me out so much. How'd they build it so fast anyway?"

"Fury's got all kinds of connections. He's probably got these places all over the country."

The two drifted of both in audibility and interest, so Loki stepped through the doorway and allowed the door to creak shut behind him. This hallway was painted a dark grey, and far busier and wider than the other had been with machines, armed guard, and metal bars dividing the rooms from one another. The old man stood just outside one of these rooms, wringing his hands and looking around in anticipation.

Loki smiled to himself. He knew it would be safer to leave the man as he was and to follow him unnoticed, but he couldn't bypass the fun of frightening him. The old man was so preoccupied he didn't notice even when the god had come to stand just beside him, waiting until he'd ventured near the barred windows before forcing the metal alive and grabbing him around the waist, pulling him to the wall and barring him there.

Before the man could cry out Loki pressed a hand over his mouth and he stared with wide-eyed terror at where the assailant should have been, but of course he saw nothing. A few of the soldiers glanced towards them, but it was a simple game to hide the bar around his waist and they merely went back to their work, probably assuming he was having a very odd reaction to anxiety.

"Considering the things you've seen I'm astounded that this surprises you." Loki murmured, and the man looked around wildly for the source of the voice. "Don't concern yourself, you won't find me. I want you to listen closely- I'm going to release you, and _you're_ going to be quiet or I'll put another bar around your neck and see if we can't sharpen it up a bit."

The man, breathing hard against Loki's hand, nodded nervously. Loki removed the bar before he did his hand, waiting for him to calm down from that attack before pulling back and watching for any signs of speech. The old man said nothing, staring forward as though he could force visibility upon the other boy.

"Why have they called you here?" Loki demanded.

"Who are you?" His voice was shaken, and so quiet it was almost indistinguishable, but nonetheless determined. "What do you want?"

"You're hardly the one to be asking questions."

"I'm more scared of them than I am of you."

"Big mistake." Loki hissed, furiously wondering when the midgardians had lost their respect for the gods. If an invisible force had pinned one of them down in his day they'd have known better than to risk such an arrogant reply. "You wouldn't want me to go find that young girl of yours, would you? I'm sure I've something to fit around _her_ neck, skinny as it is."

"How do you know about Jane?" The man demanded, though the defiance in his eyes had been replaced with fear. Obviously he cared for the girl as much as Thor had.

"Answer my question."

There was only a brief hesitation before the man conceded, looking down as if avoiding the unseen eyes of his tormentor. "They just said they wanted to talk to me about my research. I think they've found something they're interested in."

"What's your research?"

"I'm just a simple scientist. I just do studies-"

"What _on_? And think carefully about whether or not you want to lie to me." The man gulped and sighed reluctantly.

"Other dimensions, gateways, wormholes… It's all rubbish. I don't know why they're interested in it." The man pleaded, but Loki paid no mind to his mood.

So S.H.I.E.L.D. had access to more information about Asgard then he'd thought, and whatever they had called Stark in to look at had something to do with his home, or the bifrost at least. It may even be a way back- but Loki quickly reminded himself that he couldn't go back, that he didn't want to whatever the ache in his chest might say.

"Good. You're going to lead me wherever they want to take you, and if I'm caught at any point the girl's going to pay for it. Understand?" He waited until the other man nodded, looking angry and defeated. "What's your name?"

"Erik Selvik."

"Well then, Erik, I look forward to seeing your work." Loki whispered, catching sight of two soldiers coming along and drawing back to allow the man to regain his composure before they got close enough to see what was wrong.

Erik gulped and stood up straight, glancing nervously at where Loki had just been then smiling shakily at the approaching men. "G-good evening, gentlemen."

Neither of them so much as cracked a smile, but they seemed to find nothing unusual about the situation either. But of course- hadn't he been showing such nervousness even before the young god appeared? Erik gave an anxious nod and wrung his hands, following the pair as they began to make their way down the hallway, boots echoing on the metal path.

Loki was barely a step behind, wishing the rest had been a little longer. The conversation had been painful in the effort required to hide his injuries, even more so to avoid breathing audibly lest the guards or even Erik hear the shaking quality to the sound. They continued their walk for almost half an hour, doubling back, cutting through rooms which seemed to serve no purpose other than as crossroads, and pacing up and down stairs that lead them around corners and through poorly hidden passageways. A mortal would never have been able to find their way back through the maze… but Loki committed each movement to memory with ease.

The two soldiers stopped outside another door and stared at Erik, who glanced between them fearfully. "Go in." Loki whispered, and despite his jump the man recovered quickly enough to do as directed without their notice.

The hall they entered was even darker than the previous one, with wires and machinery running all along the walls. Erik froze once he was inside, but took a deep breath and continued along the path until they turned the corner to face Fury.

Loki almost froze, for some reason certain the man could see him. But he quickly regained his composure and held back as Erik attempted a welcoming smile. "So you're the man behind all this. It's quite a labyrinth! I was thinking: 'They're taking me down here to kill me!'"

He chuckled nervously, swallowing when he saw the other man's expression remain cold, neither confirming nor denying the possibility. Fury didn't speak until his so-called guest had halted in his tracks. "I've been hearing about the New Mexico situation," He said in a clear-cut voice that brought an anxious shuffle from Erik. "Your work has impressed a lot of people who are much smarter than I am."

"I have a lot to work with," The old man stammered, not with modesty but almost desperation. He probably wanted to downgrade the situation, but Loki was beyond falling for that trick. "The Foster theory, a gateway to another dimension…It's unprecedented."

"Isn't it?" Fury put his hands in his coat pocket and strolled towards a pedestal standing not far off, coming up around a thick silver box balanced atop it. "Legend tells us one thing, history another. But, every now and then we find something that belongs to both."

He clicked open the hatch on the case, which let out an eerie hiss as he pulled open the lid. For a moment it was as though fog had spilled out, but instead came a thick blue light that shone with an intensity no mortal should have laid eyes on. For a moment Loki's excitement gave way to fury- the small cube within shone with his father's power, nothing they were worthy of looking upon.

But he was. He could have reached out and held it easily within one hand, taken that power to substitute his own drained energy. But for some reason he couldn't bring himself to touch it, fear pounding his heart as if it had no need of blood.

"What is it?" Erik asked, unable to tear his eyes away from the cube.

Fury seemed to have no such problems, never pulling his gaze away from the scientist as he replied. "Power, doctor. If we can figure out how to tap it, maybe unlimited power."

Loki stepped forward eagerly, setting himself in line with the mirror that reflected Erik, drawing his eyes away from the cube with a tremendous effort and smirking at his own image. The scientist seemed to sense that his unseen host was shown in that glass and turned nervously to look at him, clearly dreading giving an answer lest he risk that girl, Jane.

"Well, I guess that's worth a look." Loki whispered with an eager smile, mirrored on Erik's face as he turned nervously to reply to Fury.

"Well, I guess that's worth a look!" His smile was strained and there was fear in his eyes that Fury would no doubt catch, but Loki had no concern. Mortals, even those who dabbled in strangeness, never expected anything beyond the obvious- he probably assumed the scientist was terrified of the power he beheld.

And he very well should be. Erik was a direct link to this power and through it, the revenge Loki knew was waiting for him on Asgard. And if Stark were to work with him, even only briefly, then he would have no trouble accessing that link.

* * *

><p>Loki knew his doubles had some sense of intelligence, though they could only say what he made them with the intention of saying. Therefore he was unsurprised to find Coulson very near a fit of fury when he returned to the interrogation room they'd brought him to- a dull, stark white room with nothing more than a set of plastic chairs.<p>

Loki had not had the luck to come by the room as a door opened for his use, but he felt the exhaustion from the walk was a higher priority than preserving a little more energy. It was a simple bit of magic to faze through the door unnoticed, and Coulson didn't so much as blink when the illusion was replaced with its original.

"I've dealt with Asgardians before, Mr. Laufeyson." The agent was in the middle of saying, smiling in an attempt at nonchalance that was ruined by a furious twitch of his lip. "I know how stubborn you can be. If you think you can outwait me-"

"I can't see how it would be that difficult to outwait a mortal." At finally earning a reply Coulson trailed off, dumbfounded. "Now, I'll be rather brief, I won't answer your questions until Stark returns. I'm sure you can manage that."

He recovered quickly, though not quickly enough to maintain the dignity he was no doubt used to exerting. "You can make demands after we've decided that you aren't dangerous."

"So you're attempting to interrogate me because you think I'm a threat?" Loki smirked, leaning back in his chair and watching Coulson with cat-like intensity. "That seems rather risky to me."

"Don't try to intimidate me." Coulson warned, that smile wavering once more with a glint of anger. "We've dealt with your kind."

"You dealt with my brother when he was in a fit of rage and entirely without the power we are born with." Loki retorted. "And even then you only captured him because he was moping over the loss of his hammer."

The agent narrowed his eyes slightly, and the smile vanished. Before he could ask his question the god responded, his voice as cold, clipped and sarcastic as when he'd made his so-called offer to Laufey. He needn't worry about maintaining a silver tongue with an underling too arrogant for his own good. "Of course I know all this. It was a simple matter to sneak into that base unseen, I even managed a conversation with my brother before I took a look around. I couldn't pick the hammer up myself, which I admit was disappointing, but I did get a look at the notes of your scientists. Funny how none of them realized I was there. Well, I _have_ always believed you mortals to be rather simple, it would be unfair to expect anything else."

Coulson pursed his lips and took a deep breath, watching Loki coldly and earning nothing but a polite smile in return. "I'll go call for Stark." He said at last, turning sharply to leave the room and moving to slam the door shut.

"Oh, you're not going to leave me by myself are you? What a poor host." Loki laughed, rising to his feet and causing the two guards remaining to jump quite literally. "I'm not a fan of the color white. Haven't you got something a little more pleasant?"

Coulson seemed like he would have liked to retort, but he must have noticed something stiff in the way Loki was moving. He smirked slightly, no doubt recalling the cry of pain from earlier. "We'll see."

He waited until the other man had crossed the threshold to follow, beckoning for the guards to join him on the way out. They backtracked for a while- Loki becoming very bored of all this wandering- until Coulson suddenly halted.

"You wait here." He ordered, motioning for the soldiers to wait as he continued down the hall and through one of the many waiting doors.

Loki merely leaned back against the wall to wait, ignoring the nervous soldiers as they trained their guns on him once more. It was always fun to see how exceptionally hostile people became when they knew they were facing a superior threat. No doubt they'd be using much more extreme measures of security if they knew he'd had the free run of their base ten minutes ago, and he doubted they'd be inclined to ever let him leave if they realized what he intended to do with the things he'd seen.

"You've kept us waiting for over an hour. Are you at least going to tell us what you want with him?"

For a moment Loki wondered if Pepper had arrived at her boss' insistence, but the voice was far more demanding and far younger than the red haired woman's. He turned curiously to find the source and saw two teenage girls, one with long black hair and a distracted look and the other's light brown with determined eyes, having an animated conversation with one of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents down the hall.

The girl. Jane. The reason his brother'd had that _wonderful_ change of personality.

"If you wait here your friend will be out momentarily." The soldier replied in a level voice.

"You said that over a half hour ago!" She protested, turning away furiously. "Forget it. Come on Darcy, maybe we can find someone more cooperative."

"Hm? What?" Darcy, assuming that was her name, looked around blankly. "Where are we going?"

"Nevermind, just come on." Jane insisted, turning down the hallway and taking only one or two steps before she spotted Loki and froze.

For a moment it looked as though she were afraid of him, staring with wide eyes at his face so bruised and battered he appeared almost to be coated in dirt, but she immediately turned her glare on the soldiers behind him.

"What are you doing? He's hurt, put those away!" She demanded, running up and literally shoving aside the barrel of one machine gun.

The soldiers glanced at each other uncertainly, but neither followed her command. "Injured or not, he's a threat."

"Did he hurt any of you?"

"Not yet."

"Then leave him alone!"

"Jane, maybe we shouldn't be yelling at the big guys with guns." Darcy suggested uncomfortably, glancing up at Loki and looking away the moment he met her eye.

"They wouldn't dare use them. Right?" Jane stared her challenge at them, hands crossed over her chest as she waited for them to reluctantly pull their guns away. "What did he do anyway? Did _you_ hurt him like that?"

"That wasn't their fault." Loki assured, nonetheless amused by the success with which she baffled the soldiers. "The blame for that's… rather complicated."

"Cool, he sounds like a domestic abuse victim or something." Darcy muttered, grabbing her friend's sleeve. "We agreed we don't like S.H.I.E.L.D. guys so can we go now?"

"No, Erik's still not done. We have to find him first." Her friend protested. "This place is so huge, he could be anywhere. I wish they'd let us keep our phones. Oh, I'm sorry, my name's Jane." She blurted suddenly, offering her hand with a flustered but nonetheless warm smile.

Loki was debating whether or not he should introduce himself by his true name when the problem was decided for him, Stark's voice calling from further up the hall, "Hey Loki, come join our super secret tea party."

The friendly air vanished as if blown away, and Jane pulled her hand to her side and took an involuntary step back with fear lighting her warm eyes. Loki glanced past her as Coulson and Stark made their way towards him, the former frowning when he noticed the two girls.

"You aren't supposed to be down here." He pointed out coldly, though didn't seem to expect the warning to merit results.

"What is he doing here?" Jane demanded rather than respond, pulling Darcy away from Loki and backing up even further.

"We're working on figuring that out ourselves." Coulson's voice was weary and impatient, eager to send the girl away as fast as possible. "We're going to interrogate him now-"

"I'm coming."

"Mrs. Foster, you know that's impossible."

"He tried to kill me!" Jane protested loudly enough that heads turned curiously from the furthest reaches of the hallway. "And Thor! I want to know what's happened to him!"

"You sneaking out at night and attempting murder again, Loki?" Stark wondered calmly, apparently unfazed by this new development. "Thought I told you to stop that."

"Oh but it's so much fun." He protested with a pleasant smile.

Coulson, ignoring this brief exchange, glanced briefly between Jane and her supposed assailant, no doubt remembering the destroyer's attack, before nodding. "Your friend can remain outside."

"He tried to kill me too." Darcy complained without much conviction, glancing nervously at the soldiers. "Do I have to wait with them?"

"That or you can be alone." Coulson suggested, merely smiling when she nodded reluctantly. "This way."

Now leading behind him a small entourage, the agent took them back towards the room he and Stark had just emerged from. Jane remained close to him, glaring nervously over her shoulder at Loki, who smiled in amusement. Her change in personality had been pleasantly sudden.

This room, and hopefully the final relocation they would have to deal with, was far more welcoming than the previous but by no means cozy. It held one black couch, two matching armchairs, a dull grey coffee table and blank walls. There was another door in the back, probably leading to another labyrinth designed to confuse intruders. A shame that the only so-called spy they had at the moment found the trip easy to recount.

"I've been here for an hour and this is the most consequential thing I've done." Stark pointed out as he took a seat on the couch, resting his feet on the table casually. "We ready to start the interview?"

"Yes." Jane cut in, her hard gaze fixed on Loki in a vain attempt to unsettle him. "You tried to kill me, and Thor."

"Is that a question?"

"Why? And how did you get here? Where is he?"

Loki glanced at Coulson, half expecting him to insist on more relevant questions, but he did no more than stare at him expectantly. Apparently S.H.I.E.L.D. was as interested in his brother's whereabouts as she was. Contrarily Stark seemed to find the whole thing boring, staring with his head tilted back at the ceiling as if there were something highly intriguing about its nonexistent design.

"Thor is still on Asgard. He will remain there forever as far as I'm aware, unless he manages to engage his simple brain and find an alternate way down to earth." Loki replied dryly, sitting next to Stark and leaving the other two to the armchairs. "He destroyed the bifrost when we fought."

The girl paled, and he realized for the first time just how much she must care for Thor. Good. "What did you do to him? Is he alive?"

Loki narrowed his eyes, tempted to lie and watch the horror on her face. But he felt Stark shift in his seat and knew the man was listening, and the concept of a man killing his brother was likely one he wouldn't agree with. He seemed so far neutral to this whole situation, but they hardly knew each other well enough for trust to play out over a murderous confession.

"Yes." Her shoulders softened and she sighed in relief, though the wariness never left her eyes.

"You mentioned other ways to come to earth." Coulson now, cold, clipped, and economic. "Is that how you got here? You have an army waiting to follow you?"

Loki laughed out loud at that, the idea was so ludicrous. "Well, clearly I got here through another way- unless you think I crossed the bridge as it was being destroyed."

"So you _did_ come from outer space." Stark mused, nodding to himself. "And you are a god then."

"They're not gods." Jane cut in immediately. "Thor told me. He said they're immortal, but they don't control the powers of the earth or anything. On Asgard science and magic are the same- they make use of it and we don't. When they came down to earth the ancient Vikings didn't know what to make of them and worshipped them as gods."

"And proceeded to make up the most ridiculous stories based on their accounts of our lives, yes." Loki agreed dryly. "For example, I'm rumored to have given birth to my father's horse."

"Well if it makes you feel better you're figure's still great." Stark assured, completely straight faced. "I'd be pretty annoyed if my dad started riding around on my children. Then again I hope mine would be human. Not drunk enough to sleep with a horse yet."

Loki smothered the urge to smile, more at Jane's expression than Stark's comment. "Then how and why did you come to earth, Mr. Laufeyson?" Coulson wondered, apparently as adept as Fury at ignoring bizarre discussions.

No reason to lie here, he had had no reason to come and claiming a lack of motivation or knowledge… Well, it all did well to hide the goals he'd created after arriving. "I already told you how my brother destroyed the rainbow bridge. It isn't like cracking your mortal stone, the energy released created a shockwave. Thor caught onto an edge, but I fell. Asgard stands atop something akin to what you all call a wormhole- it lead me here."

"We didn't find the same imprint on the ground as your brother's when we sensed your arrival." Coulson pointed out calmly, for some reason causing Stark to raise an eyebrow curiously.

"That's because my brother landed. _I _fell." Loki replied sharply, knowing the two other men in the room would believe this from his injuries, and the girl seemed no fool either.

Or perhaps not. "You haven't said why you tried to kill Thor. He's a good man, and he was unarmed, but you sent that… _monster_ after him." She seemed angry, but genuinely upset, looking at him with infuriating, pleading eyes.

Loki prided himself on being calm, collected, even regal compared to his brethren- but he'd already observed the emotional freedom of Asgardians and didn't so much as consider restraining his fury at the comment. "My _brother,_" he stressed as much venom on the word as he could, meeting Jane's eyes as he did so and causing the girl to flinch back in her seat, "is an arrogant and high minded _fool_ whose very existence was a threat to his own homeland! Of course he claimed he'd redeemed all the danger he brought on us because he found a _girl_ who supposedly changed him, but all that happened was he became a weak simpleton who could hardly rule over his own mind yet thought himself worthy of becoming King!"

Coulson narrowed his eyes and opened his mouth to speak, but Stark raised a finger to his lips to quiet him, apparently interested in the outburst. Loki ignored this, focused only on Jane's trembling and the way she refused to slink back any further even as he leaned forward to address her directly.

"And _you_ are nothing more than a pathetic mortal girl who's had the least possible dabbling in our lives for the grand total of two days and now claims herself an expert on the subject. If you think you know a single thing about Thor _or_ myself you are a bigger fool than you appear!"

Silence fell over the room, all eyes on Loki with fear, anger, or an unreadable thing akin to curiosity. At last Jane spoke, her voice strong despite a slight trembling and her eyes matching his, though only infrequently. "That's no reason to try to kill him- just because you were jealous."

"Jealous?" Loki's voice came out as a hiss, and Coulson seemed to sense something in that sound. He stood up and moved to the door, opening it and beckoning outside- but he was paid no mind. "Of _course_ I was jealous. Thor is a mindless fool who received every benefit of being the eldest son while remaining the most inept. He was unworthy of the throne!"

"So you wanted to be King." She speculated.

"King? I never cared to be _King._ I cared to keep _him_ from ruining our land! Let him rule the throne if he would treat me as an _equal_ and let me prevent him from making a mess of Asgard!"

The near-hysterical anger, the volume, the words themselves were all horribly reminiscent of the last time he'd seen Thor. The reaction he earned from Jane though, the mortal's instinctual fear of the gods brought to the surface, was far more satisfying.

"I think you might want to leave, Honey." Stark cut in, and it was only when Loki whirled to face him that he realized he'd risen to his feet at some point.

He was breathing hard, fire burning both in his chest and the corners of his eyes. His legs trembled slightly as the physical pain shot out the emotional, and he sunk into the couch with as much dignity as he could when it brought agony just to move. Coulson re-entered the room, a tall and beautiful woman in tight black leather following behind him. Jane stood at Stark's suggestion, looking not as though she were being chased away so much as she actually feared for _him_. The anger was still in her eyes, and the fright, but though there was no pity there it was clear she had no desire to see him hurt himself, and Loki was unsure whether or not he hated her for that.

Coulson smiled that patronizing smile, though this time he wouldn't even make eye contact long enough to lose it. "I think you might be more comfortable in another room. Mr. Stark, you're needed for your work right now. We'll be keeping your friend here under close observation."

"You can't do that." Stark insisted suddenly, standing up to match the other man's height. "He's my partner. I need him."

"We'll see about that, Mr. Stark." Coulson replied, hands clasped behind his back. "Mr. Laufeyson, this is Natasha Romanova. She's going to be your guard for the night. If you behave you can go home with your friend in the morning."

"And if I don't?" Loki wondered, curiously surveying the new woman who politely ignored his disheveled state.

"Then she will oversee your punishment."

"Hey, that sounds fun." Stark looked Romanova up and down approvingly, nodding so that his sunglasses nearly tipped off. "Think I could join in?"

Neither of them dignified this with a response, and Jane took him by the arm on her way out. "Sir, could I talk to you for a second?" She asked, already pulling him outside and leaving Loki in the hands of the two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.

VVV

"You know, I was about to organize something pretty fun there. Rude to interrupt." Tony lectured once he and Jane had reached the original hallway, where her friend spotted them immediately. She glanced nervously around for a moment then began to make her way over towards them, but Jane didn't seem to notice.

"Mr. Stark I'm a huge fan of your work and I have nothing but the highest respect for you- but you can't befriend that man." She pleaded desperately, struggling with the words as though they were choking her.

She looked like she'd been through hell, and little wonder why. Fury'd told him everything they knew about Asgard, and what the girl had had with Loki's brother. Tony felt bad for her, but they both had their biases.

"Why? You don't think he'll like me?" He wondered, ignoring her plea.

"_Please _listen to me!" She insisted, intensity and not volume bringing the energy to her voice. She was so quiet only Tony could hear her, but he knew he'd have found it hard not to listen even if he felt he didn't want to. "I know he was probably perfectly nice to you, but you don't know what he's done. He tried to kill his own _brother._"

"If you didn't catch that little rant back there seems to me he had a reason for it." Tony replied with more than a touch of sarcasm, despite knowing the girl had a point. But he'd seen more than jealousy from Loki, and he felt there was far more to the story than either of them had any idea- and though it may have been Jane's business to ask it certainly wasn't his.

"He was _jealous_." The girl insisted, ignoring her friend as the other approached and asked her quietly voice what was wrong. "Please, he's dangerous. You have to go back to Coulson and tell him they have to keep him here."

"Tell you what, you write me up a formal letter of complaint and I'll consider it." He suggested, brushing past her to head further down the hall but found himself impeded by a desperate hand on his arm.

"They're going to let him go with you!" She exclaimed anxiously. "If they don't watch him he's going to hurt someone."

"Like who? Your boyfriend's nice and safe back on Asgard, and the only person Loki's done anything to since he got here is himself." Tony pointed out in a clipped voice, doing his best to rid himself of his usual undertone of mockery and altogether failing to do so.

Jane nodded fiercely, as though he'd just taken a step in proving _her_ point. "Then he's going to kill himself if he's given free reign, and if he manages to fool S.H.I.E.L.D. he'll do the same to someone else before that happens. Even if you're not worried for anyone else's sake, Mr. Stark, at least do something for his!"

Tony glanced down at her over the edge of his sunglasses, surprised to find her staring up at him with determination despite the tears in her eyes. He went to respond but she cut him off as soon as his mouth moved, probably well aware he'd been about to put her down again. "If they don't lock him up he'll tear this place apart for all the weapons and technology it has. Even if he doesn't take _us_ over he'll go back to Asgard and kill Thor this time!"

"And this assumption is based on the huge understanding you earned of his personality in the five minutes that you've known him for?" Tony raised an eyebrow as though impressed, not even bothering to muffle his sarcasm this time. "Your deductive talents are wasted here- go be a detective. Or a psychiatrist."

"Loki is the god of mischief and lies." Jane seemed intent on ignoring his jibes, though he could see the emotional strain this was putting on her and frowned slightly. He wasn't being fair, and he'd never been one to pick on young girls- so why was he finding it so hard to dull his tongue? "He will trick you and use you if you let him."

"Why should he? I never dated his brother." He retorted, which caused her to flinch as though he'd hit her. God dammit, she really was broken up over that guy.

Whether or not he was about to apologize Jane's friend gave him no quarter to do so. At his last comment she had rushed in to give her friend an uncertain hug from the side, stammering general assurances as though she weren't entirely sure what the problem was.

"Come on, Jane, let's go wait for Eric outside." She suggested when none of her "it's all right"s merited any positive reaction. The taller of the two nodded reluctantly, but remained rooted to the spot.

"You can't trust him, Mr. Stark. Please don't forget that."

* * *

><p>VVV<p>

Natasha was far smarter than the other agents Loki had come across, and judging by her wiry step at least as competent a warrior. Her reminiscence of Sif was so strong that he had an overwhelming desire to laugh when she insisted on his being blindfolded as they moved him yet again- it was just like something the goddess would have done.

Coulson had seemed smug in Loki's last glimpse of him before the cloth smothered his vision, but if he'd been hoping to see him stumble or earn some show of mental weakness he would have to do far more than induce temporary blindness. The young half-blood never so much as tripped, no matter how hard a turn the guard guiding him would pull in his attempts to bring that about. He didn't need to see to know they were glaring at him warily, and those who weren't steering his course kept as far back as Coulson would allow. As terrifying as silent power was they now had an image of fury to account to his cold smiles, while the shroud of mystery still remained around what that fury could bring about. All in all a favorably frightening combination.

Loki was pulled to a halt and a hand placed on his shoulder, then shoved into sitting in a way that caused his stomach to pulse with pain. Furious, he moved to rip off the blindfold so he could record the face he would have to remember to freeze, but someone grabbed his wrist. Evidently he wasn't quite finished.

He raised an eyebrow, curious but not quite enough so to risk ruining his chances by defying them. They kept him like that for ten minutes before the blind was removed, and during that time the door was shut twelve times with footsteps clanking in both directions for each. Only three times, however, was the sound genuine, easily detectable despite their best attempts to fool him.

Honestly, attempting to fool the god of trickery? Pathetic.

This room was also bleached white, though with some texture to the walls and light blue blankets on the bench-like bed that was serving as his chair. Only three people remained in the room with him- Coulson, Natasha, and an unfamiliar man dressed in a doctor's coat.

"We're not quite done with you, Mr. Laufeyson." Coulson explained with a mock sense of apology. "We thought you might be in need of a little assistance before we continued."

"Hello." The doctor extended his hand drearily, not even attempting a smile. "So what exactly is wrong with you?"

"Isn't that your job to figure out?" Loki said with a smirk.

The doctor rolled his eyes, apparently unamused. "Fine, I'll reword it. What illness are you faking to get these guys to feel sorry for you?"

"To feel sorry for me?" He raised an eyebrow at the two agents, both of whom showed no emotion of the sort. "If this is the treatment those they pity receive I'd love to see general protocol."

The doctor scoffed and dropped a bag beside Loki, from which he started to pull various medical instruments. "Start talking, Coulson."

"Do you know what S.H.I.E.L.D. is, Mr. Laufeyson?" The short man wondered, clearly expecting a negative.

"Yes." He hesitated for a moment as this expectation was dashed, and frowned when he saw that his subject was telling the truth. In essence the group was very simple, Loki needed no explanation to confirm what he'd already deduced.

Before they could continue what was no doubt going to be a dull exhibition of protocol the doctor interrupted while placing the ends of a stethoscope in his ears. "Take off the coat and shirt."

"Very well." Loki kept his features neutral as he dispelled the illusion that created the clothing above his waist and earned a slight jump from the doctor and a shared glance between Coulson and Natasha. Clearly they hadn't been expecting that. It felt good to play around with the mortals like that- too much of his time on earth had been no fun at all.

Perhaps even more amusing was the astonishment that even the girl couldn't hide when the shock of the magic cleared and they took in the sight of his injuries. All the moving about he'd done that day had made its mark on his body- the bandages protecting his split side were dyed scarlet, and his ribcage was an ugly red, inflamed by the earlier shouting. His stomach, which had been slowly lightening, was once again near black with internal bleeding and his burns, scrapes, and cuts were as prominent as ever against his pale skin.

Loki'd have enjoyed the satisfaction of this reveal if it hadn't hurt so damn much. He shut his eyes to avoid looking himself, appearances be damned, and swallowed once against a sudden bout of dizziness. Perhaps he _was_ grateful for the doctor.

Even more so when the man sprung straight to work, carefully removing the stained bandage, dabbing the cut with a strange liquid applied using a cotton ball that stung worse than the hot shower had. Loki clenched his teeth to remain silent, but the pain brought sweat to his forehead which he couldn't hide.

Natasha must have seen this, jumping straight back to the questioning in what seemed to be a rare kindness- Loki was more than welcome for the distraction. "What is your relationship with Tony Stark?"

"He saved my life." The reply had meant to be dry, to guilt her for the accusation, but it barely came out at all. Healing on Asgard was much simpler than this- it certainly didn't make him feel _worse_.

"Have you stolen any of his weapons designs, or any other technology?" Coulson this time, looking vaguely uncomfortable by the blood-red cotton balls the doctor was discarding. There was a large stack already, considering Loki had torn the skin from the top of his rib cage down to his hip.

"No."

"For what purpose are you staying there?"

"Shelter, food, medical care." The casket, Stark's technology, medical care. Well, one out of three- better than he normally did.

"Why not come to a government facility? I'm sure Stark would have brought you to the hospital." Coulson wondered, the question itself so weak that Loki was certain the man had guessed the true answer to his previous inquiry. A shame there was no proof, whether physical or shown in Loki's reactions, to support this.

Loki couldn't reply for over a minute, choked by a searing pain. The doctor had finished dabbing at the wound on his side and had moved to one on the back of his head that he hadn't even known was there. The sting was even worse there, and Loki's vision filled with spots that remained long after the medicine had been pulled away. He didn't complain, despite a brief battle to remain conscious. It was only the worst of head wounds that you didn't feel.

"He's better company." Loki retorted at last, not even bothering to attempt sarcasm through the weakness in his voice. "Unless you claim this to be a warm welcome?"

Coulson merely smiled with false regret, amusement in his eyes. "We're merely being cautious."

"Against what?" He was tempted to lean forward, rest his chin on interlinked hands in a movement he knew unnerved most people, but felt he'd abused his abdomen enough lately. "I do hope you're aware that you couldn't possibly hope to imprison me, even injured."

The doctor seemed to disagree, judging by his horrified expression as he ran a careful hand over the bruising on Loki's stomach. He straightened up and shook his head in disbelief then pulled a small bottle from his bag and offered it to his patient.

"Painkillers. Take however many you want, I don't think _you_ need to worry about overdosing." He instructed, to which Loki responded by swallowing as many of the tablets as poured into his hand with one shake of the bottle. "I don't know how to treat most of your injuries. You shouldn't be alive with this sort of damage."

"So I've heard." The pills had no taste and no immediate effect, but Loki hoped even his body would receive some numbness from the drug. He'd taken quite a few, after all.

Natasha seemed uninterested in his damage and stared at him coldly, no doubt disapproving of his confidence in his ability to outfight them. "Even so, I believe you should be removed to one of our separate sites effective immediately. Right, agent Coulson?"

To Loki's surprise, Coulson shook his head. "Stark trusts him. He might be useful in getting that guy to work- and we'd have another agent of our own to boot. The only problem is whether or not we can trust him."

"Of course you can't." Loki wanted to laugh, but the doctor had begun to inspect his ribs and he was reminded with every prod how bad of an idea that would be. "But I won't cooperate with you under your terms. I prefer to stay with Stark."

"That's unadvisable." Natasha replied bluntly. "Whether or not you remain on our premises is still up for debate, but there can be no question of you remaining at that home. Stark is self destructive and corrupting, he would endanger your life with everything he did."

"Odd that he's kept me alive for two weeks then." Loki, despite every nerve screaming for him to bury the words under an accent of sarcasm, kept his tone gentle. His weapon and many others were waiting for him back in Stark's home- even to consider leaving was ridiculous. "I'm perfectly happy with how things are now."

The woman crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at him- something in her expression reading that she thought him a fool. "You'd be advised not to let Tony Stark become too attached, Mr. Laufeyson."

"We can discuss his living arrangements later." Coulson cut in impatiently. "We're not done with him just yet."

The rest of the so-called interrogation seemed to be nothing but standard procedure, or some odd ploy to bore him into slipping up at the very least. They asked if he had a personal grudge against the Jane girl, what he could do with his magic, if he was working for anybody, and even if he'd ever been to earth before. Loki responded to each, and more, with a blunt no- including the question about his magic, which caught Coulson off guard for a moment. During that time the doctor administered a brace to the god's injured arm, dabbed burn cream on the worst of those wounds, and ended by handing him a firm, palm-sized pillow.

"You're gonna want to hold on to that. Let's hope those pills work on you." He said apologetically in response to an inquiring look from Loki. "You might want to leave."

Coulson glanced at the doctor's hand then nodded and made for the door, though Natasha shook her head. It seemed she wasn't about to stop guarding him despite whatever was about to happen.

Nervously Loki glanced down at whatever Coulson had seen as the doctor began to dab a cooling liquid on the formerly inflamed wound on his side. He paled when he recognized the tools the man was holding and had to resist the urge to stand up and insist he was fine.

They had stitching on Asgard, too.

The cut obviously hadn't been this bad when he first fell to earth if the doctors Stark had originally taken him to had merely bandaged it. Had he really re-opened it enough times that the tear had grown to the point it was in need of being sewn shut? The procedure would certainly do well to prevent further bleeding, but he knew how much stitches could hurt. As a child he'd had them after a snake bite, and the size of that had been far smaller.

Loki wished the man would hurry up, he was finding it hard to swallow down his dread, and he was certain it showed. Coulson had even hesitated in the doorway, looking not pitying but without his usual mockery at least.

"Get some sleep, Mr. Laufeyson." He said at last, closing the door behind him with an echoing clang just as the doctor moved to start his work.

**A/N: So, once again a brief apology for the length of this chapter, and to Loki for all the abuse I'm throwing at him. Why I can't end a chapter like a normal person I'm not sure, but I felt it wasn't quite complete without a little more pain for our favorite god of Mischief (I'm such a bad person, I know. _) **

**Feedback is always appreciated! I love each review to death, and I'm glad to see that people are actually reading this. I'm surprised by the amount of people who actually like this pairing, it's fun to see.**

**(Also. I know the whole last scene seems weird... On a minor amount of research (ie a brother in medical school...) I was told that someone isn't knocked out for stitches, just drugged up. I'd of had them give him morphine and not pain killers, but I didn't think the guy would be carrying it around with him. Think I should change that...?)  
><strong>


	7. Sydney Carton

**A/N: Oh hey look, it's only fourteen pages. Well it's finally up at least, and there's also a brief **_**Tale of Two Cities**_** reference. Weird, but I promise it'll make sense. If you haven't read it-and you should, it's absolutely amazing- then all you need to know is that Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton are two men who look almost exactly alike, but Darnay is virtually perfection and Carton, though a genius, is an alcoholic and thinks himself useless.**

**Disclaimer: Marvel remains out of my grasp, it belongs to Disney and Stan Lee. **

Tony felt drunk. There was no other way to describe the level of exhaustion battling the overload of information in his brain, the bad taste in his mouth or the stickiness of his eyes. And if he wasn't drunk then he damn well wanted to be.

He and Erik had stayed up the entire night, never once looking away from their work, whether that meant inspecting the cube or teaching the other man how his astrophysics could be applied to regular engineering or science. The guy was absolutely brilliant, but he lacked imagination- and that was where Stark came in. The moment Fury showed him to the cube he'd envisioned endless applications for its energy, and with Erik they stood a chance of tapping that source. Of course they made little progress, they only had one night, but he'd lectured on mechanics and physics enough that when they finally did understand it the scientist would be able to use it for more than playing around with space.

Not that he had to tell Fury any of this. When the man came the next morning to see how they'd done Tony had flat out refused to speak, going so far as to cover his temporary partner's mouth when he began to reply.

"What've you decided with Loki?" Tony insisted, ignoring Erik's wide eyed look. Let those girls explain to him- he wasn't interested in some near stranger's approval of his friends anyway.

Fury was unabashed, he'd probably been expecting this sort of reaction. "You and your friend can go home as soon as you've given your report. We've decided he's not dangerous."

"You mean you know you can't keep him here if he chooses to leave."

He gave no visible change of features, but the man's eyes were even colder than normal, if that were possible. "The report, Tony."

"We think we've found begun to understand what that thing is." Erik cut in, glancing at his partner to make sure he didn't want to speak first. "The energy from it isn't from this world- it's almost exactly like the readings from Thor's landing. We think it might have come from Asgard, but the sort of energy it produces… I don't know how it could have gone unnoticed for so long."

"It didn't. A scientist named Johann Shmidt discovered it in the nineteen forties and nearly took over the world." Fury replied in his usual tone, so blunt it was almost accusing. "They harnessed it for weaponry. We need to find out how they did that."

"Whoa, you're making weapons?" Tony remembered the power of that cube, the force it exerted when you did so much as step too close. As a weapon it could be disastrous. "No can do."

"We need to know how they channeled the energy, we're not using it for firepower. We're trying to keep this thing _out_ of the wrong hands." Fury assured impatiently, and Tony gave a reluctant nod.

"Fine. Then you can have these." He was never the most organized of persons, and pulled out his notes in a roughly folded, crumpled heap from his pocket. Erik's, by contrast, were in a neat folder back with the cube.

Fury took the mess with a look of resigned annoyance, smoothing them out once before putting them in his own, considerably larger trench coat pocket. "Oh, I almost forgot. You might want to keep an eye on your friend's sleep schedule."

How was it everything the guy said sounded like an insult? Honestly, he was worse than Tony. And far less charming. "Don't worry, I always watch him sleep."

The older man was, as ever, disinterested in the comment. Erik, however, gave him an odd look and seemed to be debating whether or not he should take a few steps away from him. "He gave the Black Widow a black eye."

"He what?" Wow. Tony wasn't sure whether he was stunned that Loki had hurt a woman, or that _anything_ could hurt Natasha.

"Halfway through the night he started screaming and thrashing around. She went to wake him up and he froze her hand to the bed then punched her before we could calm him down." Fury explained dryly, watching him very carefully for his reaction. "You have some interesting friends, Tony."

So Loki was having nightmares… and apparently nothing of the normal sort- violent ones, if he hallucinated being attacked. That was definitely new, he'd never done anything odd in his sleep at Tony's house. Maybe that was part of why S.H.I.E.L.D. was letting him leave.

He said none of this though, merely raised an eyebrow at Fury and replied, "So, does that mean _you're_ watching him sleep?"

"Of course." The man seemed to be entirely aware of, and entirely unperturbed by, the innuendo he had just furthered. Tony meant to reply, but honestly couldn't think of anything to respond with. It was no fun talking to Fury. "Loki is waiting by the plane. You can go join him- we'll call you in for work soon."

"Joy. Do top secret organizations get a worker's union?"

"No."

"Maybe I'll form one." Tony mused half-heartedly, wondering why he never just told S.H.I.E.L.D. off. After all, though he was very interested in what they were trying to do there was only one Iron Man. Then again, as much as he liked to believe he had any pull in the organization he knew Fury would either force him to continue working the same as always, or call Rhodes instead.

He said a quick goodbye to the very baffled Dr. Selvik, who recovered enough to shake his hand eagerly and offer his help at any time, before heading off for the outside world. Underground buildings were way too stuffy- especially considering Tony's been determined to leave his sunglasses on the entire time. Probably not the best idea.

Still, he was glad for them when he finally found his way outside of the building. It was so bright and so hot in the dessert that his eyes watered even behind the tinted glass. When had it gotten to be morning? He had been sure it was only dawn, at the latest.

His jet was still where he'd left it, but Loki and Natasha were waiting closer to the building. Fury hadn't been lying- the girl was sporting a purple-black bruise and a sour expression that didn't do anything to hurt her beauty. Still, Tony was glad Loki hadn't been in a hitting mood any of the times he'd been around him while he was asleep.

"Nice look, it suits you." He called before he could stop himself, raising an eyebrow innocently when she narrowed her eyes at him. Or eye, the bruised one remained the same.

Nonetheless she retained her intimidating composure, whereas Loki looked like he'd been through hell. There were no shadows under his eyes but it was clear he'd hardly slept, and his usual pallor had taken on a tint of sickly grey. His expression and stance were as calm as ever, but they couldn't hide what were clearly the effects of more than a bad dream.

"You're to tell us if your companion does anything regarded as suspicious." Natasha cut in, down-to-earth and business-like as ever. As ever she bared a strong resemblance to Pepper, and Tony wondered if it were odd how frightening the woman in his life were. "We will be setting up surveillance outside your house, and listening devices in your computer's hardware. Understood?"

"Sure. You're welcome to set 'em up, but I'll get rid of them pretty fast." Tony admitted, feeling there was no point in lying. "Maybe give them a day to make you feel accomplished."

Natasha only raised an eyebrow- probably remembering the hacked suit. "We'll see about that, Mr. Stark. Keep your suit ready, we might be calling on you soon."

"You're welcome to call me anytime."

"You're acting like a sexual predator again." Loki warned boredly.

"Acting?"

The other man smirked slightly but otherwise didn't reply. Natasha seemed to have had more than enough of their banter, for she escorted them to the jet and sent them off saying, in no plainer terms, that they were to never reveal the location of the base unless they planned to lose their lives. With this happy prospect in mind, they took their seats for another long, dull air ride home.

* * *

><p>VVV<p>

Tony never called to say when he was on his way back from some ridiculous trip, except maybe when he wanted Pepper to have something ready for him at his arrival. She'd thought he would be gone for a few hours at the most, not accounting for travel time, but here he'd been gone for over a day and nobody'd bothered to tell her anything. She knew they had a car taking them from the airport, so she only had to wait in front of Tony's house for news, but she felt no better pacing anxiously there than at her own home.

She was a patient person, she could wait to know what S.H.I.E.L.D. wanted and even to confirm the truth about where Loki came from. But she couldn't wait to know if Tony was safe. He had a horrible habit of endangering himself both physically and politically out of a general disregard for his own safety, and she didn't want to imagine what would happen if he got on Fury's bad side. It was a constant fear for her, and the thing that had caused her to take up her old job with Tony again in the first place.

Loki might keep him safe. He was rational, strong, and better at dealing with Tony than almost anyone save herself and Rhodes. The two had a lot in common despite their opposite personas, and so Pepper hadn't protested to his going on the trip. The boy was bound to hurt himself, but hopefully he would be some guidance for their mutual friend. Right?

Right, because even though he would probably never admit it Tony had… feelings for the boy. Nothing like love, but certainly an attraction that extended beyond his regular need to flirt with everything even vaguely feminine. Pepper could see that every time he spoke of him, or looked at him, or talked to him with a look in his eyes warmer than any he'd ever given her.

She wasn't jealous. She didn't know how she felt- but she'd never disillusioned herself into thinking Tony Stark had fallen in love with her.

Multiple cars slowed down as they passed, and one or two even halted, but Pepper paid no interest to the stunned responses Tony's house always earned. She was waiting for one car only, and it wasn't until half past eleven that it pulled up across the street.

She didn't even bother to wait for him, and strolled her way across the asphalt without so much as glancing to see if a car were on its way. Tony was in the driver's seat, with a very baffled chauffer sitting in the back, and had pulled the hood of the silver convertible all the way down. Loki was looking dazed, he'd probably never driven in anything like this before, but Tony hopped out of the vehicle without even bothering to open the door.

"Hey honey, couldn't wait to see me?" He asked, twirling the key ring around on one finger while smirking down at her. He was still wearing his sunglasses, and the whole display succeeding in portraying him as one of the world's biggest assholes.

Pepper, more than used to this attitude, didn't return the look. She had no time for banter today. "What happened out there? Why were you gone all day?"

"There were a few complications." Loki admitted, finally succeeding in maneuvering his way out of the door.

"Such as?"

"Fury won't let me keep pets." Tony complained, earning a dry look from the other man as he came to join them on their way towards the house. "And Loki punched a woman."

"Need I remind you it was an accident?" Pepper hardly noticed the implication of their conversation, noting only Loki's weary voice and heavy breathing. Nothing quite so bad as when he had first woken up, but nothing good either.

"Start at the beginning." She insisted, unsure which to turn to first. Certainly they would both have very interesting accounts.

Loki glanced briefly at Tony, who shrugged noncommittally. "Very well. We met two agents as soon as we arrived. Fury and Coulson."

Pepper nodded, she'd had more than a few dealings with both. It took a moment for the boy to continue, and when he did she was given just enough time to recognize his struggle to speak before he collapsed without warning.

She froze on the spot, literally sensing her heart skip a beat. Oh no, oh god damn it _no._ Why had she let him go? Because she was paranoid about Tony? She could easily have insisted on accompanying him herself, she wasn't injured or hurt. The chauffer came rushing over from the car to see what had happened, and Tony sent him to go stop traffic while he bent beside his friend.

Loki would be fine, Pepper knew that even as she too bent to see what had happened, but Tony was going to blame himself for this. He always did.

"Oh my god… is he okay?" She asked nervously, though she didn't know why. Obviously not. "What happened?"

"He fainted." Tony replied distractedly, giving the boy a gentle push on the shoulder to roll him onto his back for a better look.

He was paler than usual, and there was a thick coat of blood staining his lips. Pepper had to cast an anxious glance at his chest just to assure herself that he was still breathing, and he was doing so so lightly she thought for a moment that he wasn't at all. "How are we going to get him inside?"

"I'll go get the suit on." Tony moved to stand, but she grabbed his arm to prevent him from leaving.

"Tony, that's ridiculous."

"You see any body builders around here? Guy's twice my height."

"We don't have time for that. Maybe we can carry him together…" But of course they couldn't. She was not only weak-and wearing precarious high heels- but they'd probably end up hurting him in the process.

Luckily Loki solved there problem for them. His eyes shot open, slightly foggy but nothing like his feverish moments the week before. He glanced around briefly, seeming surprised that he was on the ground then smiled wearily at their expressions.

"I appreciate the view, but you're a bit close." He pointed out wearily, and Pepper drew back with a blush.

Tony, however, would never dream of such a thing. "You know I love it when you're beneath me."

"Don't get used to it."

"Do you think you can walk?" Pepper cut in before their banter could escalate, especially considering there was a bit of a crowd stopped to see what was happening and some of its members consisted of children.

Loki nodded, dazed, and attempted to sit up. The effort was obviously painful, but with Tony and Pepper each supporting one shoulder he managed to make it to a standing position. They didn't let go, which proved a good idea when the dark haired youth stumbled and nearly fell again before he could take a step. One of the crowd, spotting this, called out that they would call an ambulance.

"Don't worry, this happens all the time." Tony assured them casually, and the person froze midway through dialing the number, looking at him as if they were unsure whether to be frightened or disturbed.

"Don't make me out to be a drunkard." Loki protested, with a slur that would have been funny considering the statement if it weren't so concerning.

"Tony, shut up." Pepper hissed before the man could reply, giving him one of the warning looks she reserved just for him.

He shrugged innocently and remained silent, seemingly unabashed but for a concerned frown that would pass as nothing to the average bystander. Pepper recognized it for what it was and Loki, with a sly smile, did as well.

It didn't take too long to make it into the house, despite the curious bystanders and one or two would-be journalists standing around attempting to snap photos with their phone cameras. Tony started to speak to them, but one glare from Loki was enough to discourage the whole lot. Impressed, and a little discomforted, Pepper began to wonder not for the first time what their guest might be like when he was in full health.

"Think you can make it upstairs?" Tony asked once they'd made it to the entry way of the mansion- a rather outlandish room, of course, but with only a television and a couch to serve an actual purpose amidst the gaudy frivolities. Tony was a big fan of horrible first impressions.

"No." Pepper had a feeling Loki wouldn't have made that admission had there been anyone there but herself and Tony, who'd seen him at far worse. As it was he seemed reluctant to bruise his pride as such, but considering how heavy he was becoming he must have been too exhausted even to stand much longer.

They at last brought Loki to the couch, and they'd barely helped him onto it before his head fell back gratefully against the pillow and he was asleep once more.

VVV

"Do you know what happened?" Pepper asked after a moment's uncomfortable silence.

Tony glanced at her, giving his best nonchalant shrug and forcing himself to turn away from the other boy and head towards the kitchen. "Dunno. He was really tired this morning, but I thought he slept on the plane. Guess I was wrong."

He wanted to turn to her to read her expression, to see if she was at least thinking what she wouldn't say. What he wanted to take her by the shoulders and shake her for keeping to herself, to shout it himself and see if she would insist that he wasn't at fault for Loki's newest fainting spell. Because of course he was a fucking _idiot_ for not noticing something was wrong until the guy fell over in the middle of the road, and for letting him scream at Jane until he could hardly stand because he was so sure his friend would have been angry with him for stopping him.

"Are you going to tell me what S.H.I.E.L.D. wanted?"

"Depends, how much alcohol do we have in the house?"

"You're not recounting horrific childhood memories, Tony." Pepper scolded dryly, though her tone softened as she cast an involuntary look towards Loki. "I'm calling James and making arrangements for dinner. You'll tell us everything that happened there. Deal?"

"Deal implies I get something out of it." He pointed out as he began his way up the stairs, pausing briefly to turn back and meet her unwavering look of disapproval. "Sure. Deal."

"Good. I'm going to call a doctor, hopefully they'll be here before we have to leave." She stopped at the foot of the stairs, glancing at her sleek watch with one hand on the railing.

Tony shook his head at the suggestion, for once with reason. "Fury had a doctor look at him while we were there. Loki told me they couldn't figure out what to do."

"What?" She seemed taken aback, but rather than stubbornly insist on another option gave a disappointed sigh. "So we really can't help him."

The thought of that, how defenseless they were to do anything about the fallen god's injuries, brought a lump to Tony's throat. He ignored the feeling, however, and took his assistant's wrist. "Nope. Now come on, you can make me lunch."

Pepper merely raised an eyebrow at him as she was pulled up the stairs, probably to remind him that she'd never done anything of the sort and never would. "You must be joking."

"Hey, I cook for you. Now it's your turn."

"You made me an omelet. Once. Because you thought you were dying and wanted to persuade me to go to Italy."

"Well, I promise if you make me crepes now I'll go on whatever bucket list adventures you like." Tony assured, turning to her once they were on level ground.

She smiled, one of the rare pure ones he saw from her. "If I cook for you will you shut up?"

"I make no promises." He admitted after taking a moment to consider this and deciding that no, he was not quite through with their banter.

"Fine, but then I'm not making crepes. You get whatever's in the cupboard."

"So long as you don't cook the plates." He said agreeably, bustling past her and towards yet another set of stairs which would take him to his workshop. Before he could head down them he looked over his shoulder at Pepper. "I'm going to go compare magical boxes now, call me when you're done."

* * *

><p>Even with what he'd seen and learned in New Mexico Tony could make no progress with the cube still stored in his home. Loki could probably explain it easily, but he hadn't exactly had a chance to bring him down here yet. Even so he'd tried a few tests similar to those he'd worked with Erik, mostly for the fun of it, and made no progress beyond destroying the case they'd been keeping the thing in.<p>

"Make sure that gets cleaned up." Tony called to Jarvis, pulling a small shard of the object in question out of his upper arm as he headed for the door. A quick glance at the clock had told him Pepper had made arrangements for twenty minutes ago at the restaurant- just the right time to leave.

"Of course, sir." The computer replied without much interest.

Tony smiled wryly at the response before leaving the room, instinctively moving to wave goodbye before realizing such a gesture would be useless. Well, even so. He really was getting too used to having human company, or… godly company. Oh well, close enough.

Speaking of godly company, Loki'd slept the day away on the couch and was still there when Tony re-emerged from the upper floor. Contrary to his still rest for that week after they'd found him he seemed to be at least only a normal level of subconscious, having even turned onto his uninjured side and drawn the pillow closer to him. He looked almost childish that way, and Tony found himself smiling at the sight almost involuntarily, and quickly smoothing his expression out when he realized this.

"Would you like me to take a picture, sir?" Jarvis asked sarcastically, and Tony wished he were in the workshop just so he could shoot the thing a dirty look. As it was he pointed a warning finger at one of his cameras, knowing the machine would ignore it.

"If you start making me seem like a stalker or something I'm going to give you to some teenager."

"Point taken, sir."

Tony smiled, more of a twitch of the lip really, at the sarcasm of his invention. He was prepared to leave for the restaurant, but even as he pulled out his door key to prepare to lock up when he left Loki turned in his sleep and muttered something unintelligible. He obviously wasn't so deeply asleep that he would remain that way for however many hours it took him to drive there, eat, recount the previous day's events and return home. So, conscious that he had very little to offer, he vanished down one of the many hallways littering his mansion in search of a book to leave him.

There were plenty scattered about, but most of them had something to do with business or work. Tony knew he kept novels lying about in one of the guest rooms though, and found without too much trouble a copy of one of Pepper's favorites, _A Tale of Two Cities_. The book was extremely common on Earth, but there was no chance of Loki having read it, so he shrugged and returned to the main entrance.

"I do believe you are becoming a wonderful caretaker, sir." Jarvis mocked as Tony, who had decided against leaving it on the table and possible out of Loki's reach, settled the book directly beside him. "Perhaps Mrs. Potts is finally influ-"

"Mute." Tony snapped, as usual satisfied by the sudden silence that followed. Shame he couldn't program normal people that way.

* * *

><p>Pepper and James were, of course, already waiting for him by the table. In fact they'd already ordered and cleared their own plates, probably to prevent him from staying out of a conversation by pretending to examine a menu. Tony had no intention, however, of plunging right into an explanation and called a waitress over to bring him one as soon as he slid into his seat, feet propped up on the extra chair set up.<p>

His friends both shot him disapproving looks, but their curiosity seemed to be more powerful than their desires to lecture him. "Everything S.H.I.E.L.D. has authorized you to say- out with it." James demanded immediately.

"No." Pepper corrected, turning to him and shaking her head before looking back at Tony. "Everything, I don't care what S.H.I.E.L.D. authorized."

"Hello to you too, sunshine. Tell me, is this duck or chicken, or some weird crossbreed?" Tony jabbed at their choice of food- quail, incidentally, but he wasn't going to let them know he was aware of this- and shook his head. "Don't like it."

"Don't be so picky, Tony."

"Hey, you know me. Chicken fingers or nothing."

"So order chicken fingers." James cut in, clearly not in the mood for games. Then again, he rarely was. "Start from the beginning."

Tony looked to Pepper for some respite but saw the same burning determination in her eyes, and he knew better than to think they'd let him leave without spilling the entire story.

So, paying brief attention to the original call from Fury, he recounted the non-scientific dealings of their day on the base of S.H.I.E.L.D. He of course knew very little of what had occurred with Loki, but he could now tell them with confidence that their guest had landed from nowhere but Asgard itself. Pepper had drawn in breath at this and buried her head in her hands briefly, signaling for a waiter to bring her something alcoholic before waving for him to continue. He had little to tell them about the god's world, nothing more than the snippets of information Jane had given to S.H.I.E.L.D., but a shared interest in Norse mythology was enough for both Tony and James.

Which would explain his ominous frown, and the way he shook his head as the narrative ended. "You have to leave him with the government."

"Funny how you always seem to forget I've already said no to that."

"Tony, if S.H.I.E.L.D. won't be strict with you then I will. Stories aside how have you not realized he's dangerous? He threatened one girl and attacked another, I doubt he'll have any trouble with hurting you." He pointed out impatiently, doing his best to keep his voice low as a passing server cast them a curious glance. "This isn't the time for your man-crush to get in the way of national security."

"So what you're saying is that there _is_ a time for that? What context would that be in?" Tony wondered, cutting them off more soberly before either could scold him for his jokes. "I'm not doing that. They've already decided he was safe enough to leave, so I don't see why you're complaining."

"Probably because you destroyed half your house two months ago."

"I was dying, and anyway I thought we were worried about him being the dangerous one here? Pepper, back me up."

Tony felt he knew Pepper much better than most people, and she certainly could decipher him in ways almost nobody else could. So he expected her, with the affection and anxiety she'd shown for Loki, to tell James he was being paranoid. Yet she frowned at him, as if he were a child who'd brought home a snake and called it a mouse.

"Tony, if he really is a god… Loki was dangerous." She insisted, clearly having done a little reading on her mythology.

"Well, considering he hasn't given birth to any horses I'm pretty sure we took a few liberties with our stories."

"Not all of them, if he really is a frost giant." She frowned when he merely shrugged, though there was concern and not annoyance primary in her eyes. "Maybe somebody else would be fine, but you're going to make him angry somehow and he's going to hurt you."

"He's not dangerous." Tony assured, though he himself wasn't sure why. He just had a feeling Loki wouldn't really hurt someone without a reason, however odd that reason may be. "And he's smart. He'll be a big help with work."

"You don't let anybody help you." James now, sounding vaguely injured. He was probably recalling the numerous times Tony had brushed aside his offers for help, whether intellectual or physical.

"Well, he's a god. Don't get that chance every day."

"Tony, you remember the myth about Baldr." The other man gave him a pointed look, perhaps guessing his thoughts regarding Loki and hurting people. "He killed his brother out of jealousy and boredom. He might do the same to you."

"Pretty sure we made that one up." Tony cut in, unable to recall any mention of a third sibling. Considering all the ranting about Thor certainly the youngest would have come up in conversation at least once, right?

"Then at least let one of us stay with you full time." James insisted, pulling aside the menu as it was offered by a waiter to Tony in order to remove the distraction. "You can't trust the god of lies."

Tony frowned, both at the robbery of his menu and the comment, and turned his gaze to Pepper. She seemed far less convinced of this course of action, probably going along out of nerves and a general faith in the colonel's intellect. "Pepper, you know him. You were as worried as I was when he collapsed, you know we can trust him."

"That's why I'm against you on this." She replied steadily, though he saw her usual resolve wavering slightly. Something about Loki made it easy to have a soft spot for him, and neither of them had completely avoided that. "I don't want to watch either of you killing yourselves."

"He's not leaving. Tell the military if you want, they won't believe I've got a god in my living room." Tony replied after a moment's silence, standing with a shrug.

James got to his feet as well, scraping the chair back in his hurry and earning a few nervous stares from other customers. "What are you doing, Tony?"

"Going home. Jarvis lets me have chicken fingers." The engineer replied bluntly, turning to leave before either could reply.

* * *

><p>VVV<p>

The room was dark and silent, with little that could have awoken Loki other than no longer needing the rest. Yet his eyes felt too heavy for this to be a possibility, and only when he turned to go back to sleep did a jab of pain remind him why he wasn't in his usual bed. He'd put too much strain on his body at S.H.I.E.L.D.'s base, and on top of that drained his magic reserves and had no way to reverse the damage. His side especially was burning with pain, though in general his cuts and wounds were feeling better while the most major injuries were far worse after the doctor'd looked at them. Of course he couldn't fix them, these midgardian fools were terrible healers.

Loki knew he wouldn't be able to get back to sleep, cringing at the mere memory of his dream the night before. He also knew he was unable to make his way upstairs and felt too thick with exhaustion and agony to do more than rest where he was.

"Would you mind turning on the light, Jarvis?" He wondered, certain the computer was listening and would pick up the command, no matter how weakly it was given.

A moment later the room lit up, though not so quickly that his eyes were given no time to adjust. No doubt Tony'd designed it that way to avoid any shock factor when he stumbled home early in the mornings. There wasn't much to the room, just a few odd pieces of furniture, a television, and some very eccentric decorations he hadn't noticed when being brought inside. Well, considering he'd barely been conscious he hadn't noticed much of anything.

There was a thick, paper-bound novel lying beside Loki, with a small painting of humans gathered about, shouting, where in their center stood a blade and another man holding a disembodied head. Curious, he flipped it open to the first page and came by an introduction by the author, which gave little information of interest but at least concluded that the story would detail two separate countries, neither of which Loki had been to before. Nonetheless he had little else to do, and flipped open the book without high expectations. Before long, however, he'd drawn into the book so deeply that when Stark finally returned he was watching the French revolution unfold on paper before him.

He recognized the sound of the door shutting, distinguished Stark's heavy footsteps, but kept his eyes fixed on the words. He gave a brief greeting, and smirked when he heard the stumble that implied he'd surprised the other man.

"Huh. You're awake. Cool. Now I don't have to be lonely." He mused, tossing something aside-probably a jacket- then strolling over to glance over Loki's shoulder. "What you think?"

"It's very good. Very violent, though."

"Yup, that's revolution for you. Lots of beheading and drunken lawyers."

Amused, Loki folded down the corner of the page and set the book aside, meeting his host's eye and finding them bloodshot, but not from alcoholism. "Have you slept since we got to S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

"Nope." He replied cheerfully, vaulting himself onto the couch with the armrest and reclining beside Loki. "You been reading all day? What a waste of time. Jarvis, put on a movie."

"Of course, sir."

"…You're too close." Loki complained, shooting the man a dirty look, which was paid no attention. "Go somewhere else."

"This is the only couch, I feel like l

ying down." Stark protested calmly, apparently unbothered by the lack of distance between them. In fact he scooted closer when he realized there was extra room, got comfortable, then crossed his legs and reclined happily. "What you want to watch? Comedy? Action? Horror?"

"Move."

"Romantic comedy it is. Let's make this more uncomfortable." Stark decided happily, waving a hand and queuing Jarvis to light up the TV with any number of selections. "Take your pick."

"This is ridiculous." Loki complained, nonetheless scanning the list. "What exactly is The Ugly Truth?"

"Extremely sexual. Jarvis, play it." The movie title was highlighted briefly, then suddenly the screen filled with blackness, followed by some rather cheesy music and an animation that formed itself into a logo.

Loki, who had never seen a movie before but was at least aware of what they were, couldn't help but watching with interest even as it became apparent the film was far from child appropriate. "This is vulgar." He noted calmly, raising an eyebrow as the man made yet another innuendo for what seemed to be no purpose other than to elicit a negative reaction from the audience.

"Really? This is life for me."

"Well, you're vulgar."

"You're not much better, honey."

"Hmph." Loki merely smirked, conceding the point, and did his best to scoot a little further and increase the space between them. Stark, seeing this, seemed to think it would be funny to scootch even closer until they were virtually touching at the shoulders. Loki, knowing there was no use in insisting he move, merely rolled his eyes. He'd shove him away after the movie.

"Did you tell her?" He wondered at last during one of the few silent moments on screen, during which the girl was passionately kissing the male lead while her lover waited for her down the hall. Charming.

No response. Loki, believing Stark was busy formulating some odd answer to this, turned to repeat the question and insist on a true response. He froze as soon as he had done so, spotting not thoughtfulness on Stark's face but in fact… well, not much of anything. His eyes were shut and his mouth was partially open, snoring so softly the trickster hadn't noticed until then. And he hadn't moved from his earlier position, and in fact had somehow ended up with his head leaning against Loki's shoulder, while virtually pinning down his good arm.

"Stark. Wake up." He demanded, attempting to push him aside with his injured arm and wincing at the pain of it. Well, that wasn't going to work. "_Stark._"

No response. The man hadn't slept in over a day, no wonder he was exhausted, but Loki had no desire to wait out the night with a narcissistic entrepreneur pinning him to a couch. "Jarvis, I don't suppose you could help?"

He'd assumed Stark would have some sort of robot, or at least an alarming noise to startle him out of sleep, built into the computer, but either neither of these things existed or Jarvis simply didn't feel like implementing them. Therefore the command was purposefully misinterpreted, the lights and television dimming into blackness while Loki was no more free of his burden.

Loki pursed his lips in annoyance and gave one last-ditch effort to shove Stark aside, not even succeeding in causing him to stir in his sleep. The man was out strong, and Loki was reminded of the many nights in which his brother had passed out drunk, not to be woken by even Gulgnir's clang. Wonderful.

The god of mischief sighed and leaned his head back, resigning himself to his new position as a pillow. He wished Jarvis hadn't turned off the light- he couldn't even read his book, only sit there and mull over whether or not to go to sleep. Disheveled, exhausted, and perpetually reeking of alcohol- Tony Stark was quite a bit like the main character from _A Tale_. Well, if Stark was Sydney Carton Loki preferred not to meet Charles Darnay- he rather preferred the so-called "useless" counterpart.

**A/N: There ya go, another chapter at last, and I'm actually getting close to being vaguely romantic, finally. I was considering having Happy pick them up from the airport, but it'd be weird for him to suddenly appear, so I have something planned for him later. Thanks to everyone who leaves reviews, and who reads this story- I'm glad I could keep you entertained for this monthly milestone. Well, a little over a month maybe, but close enough.**

**Anyway, I really hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! It felt a bit silly to write, but for some reason I didn't want to change it. Reviews are always appreciated, I'd love to know what you guys like and dislike about this story.  
><strong>


	8. Tin Men and Cheshire Cats

**A/N:Well, here's another long one. Not even going to apologize because I've finally given you guys a plot, and considering we're on chapter eight this shouldn't feel like the accomplishment it does. Thank you so much for the reviews and favorites guys, I'm always glad to see when people are reading. **

**((Another thing. I don't normally suggest songs or anything to go along with what I write- it always feels kinda presumptuous when I start to- but I was listening to some music while I wrote this time and thought the song Kashmir by Escala was pretty cool, and it fits the beginning pretty well. .com/watch?v=BHqMi_krnho You can find it here. :) For Loki's dream I was listening to Vivaldi's Winter, and that should be on Youtube too, though it's not as befitting for the situation as the other song is.))**

**Disclaimer: Marvel doesn't belong to me yet. Probably never will, but dreams can happen, right?**

VVV

It had been over two months since Tony had worn the suit for anything really fun- which almost made up for the fact that Fury had called him at six in the morning and demanded he meet him for a briefing. Of course he hadn't actually shown up until almost nine, but it was annoying that he'd expected him to.

"Hmph. Whoever cleans this place should be fired." Tony muttered to himself, kicking aside a plank of discarded wood that seemed to have once proclaimed the name of the decrepit shipping yard he'd landed in.

The place was deserted, with a layer of dust, spider webs, decay and stray cats indicating it hadn't been anything but in quite some time. Little wonder why considering it was all wood and a few miles South of any major dock or town- place had probably been forgotten by anyone who ever paid it any attention. It didn't look like a neat break either- there was merchandise tossed about by the waves scattering the floor, and the place reeked of rotten fish so badly he could smell it through the suit's filter.

There was a loud "crunch", and Tony looked down to find the remains of a crab claw crushed under his metal boot- meat included. Awesome.

"Well, I can see why somebody'd get away with hiding here." He admitted, scraping the crab blood and claw off the bottom of his foot with a look of disgust. "Got anything, Jarvis?"

"Heat sensors are reading negative, sir." The mechanic brain replied, bringing up the results on the suit's built-in "screen" to allow Tony to confirm it for himself.

Nothing. Not even a cat- those had all scattered when he arrived. Fury's intelligence network was extremely impressive, and his instructions had been so exact that there could be no doubt Tony was where he was supposed to be- so where was his target?

"Target" may have been inaccurate. No matter what S.H.I.E.L.D. asked of him he would never become a hired gun, and he despised killing- though he'd done more than his fair share of it. The man he'd been told to capture, a nameless fugitive whose crime Fury had refused to elaborate, was more like a goal than a target. Which of course sounded oddly sexual, but there was no point in chuckling over this considering the joke would be wasted on Jarvis, who would only give him some inherently sarcastic retort.

After the crab claw incident Tony was intent on keeping his feet where they should be, and as such didn't even notice the sound of splintering wood until a crack like lightning drew his attention. Raising his palm to fire should he need to, he turned to find the source of the sound just as the far wall exploded with a burst of blue light.

Almost a year of fighting in the suit had sharpened Tony's reflexes, but even as he turned to fly out of the way a plank of wood hit him in the back of the head, heavy enough to knock him down and send the suit's screens into a confused, momentary fritz. Swearing, he struggled to make the thing move and found it reacting poorly to whatever force had caused the blast, Jarvis' systems nonetheless winning out and allowing him to fly up and hide on the newly-exposed roof before his assailant could spot him.

"Put in a call to Fury." He demanded, scanning the area with eyes and radar for some sign of life. Nothing, absolutely nothing- yet a moment later something was shooting at him, bullets clanging off the iron suit and blasts of blue light destroying the wood around him.

His first instinct was to shoot off into the air and out of range- but those lasers were _not_ like normal projectile, he'd probably be shot down before he made it fifty feet. So instead he drew his hand back and delivered a sharp punch to the rotted ceiling beneath him, forming a large enough crack that when he straightened up to fire his hand-cannon at it the entire thing fell apart. As the building collapsed inward he hovered above for a moment to avoid damage, then braced himself for a fall and cut off the propulsion so that he hit the ground with an audible, misleading clang.

Though he wasn't nearly as badly hurt as the sound implied, Tony took a moment to regain his breath before taking advantage of the dust and chaos to dash out of the deathtrap of a room. Whatever had fired at him was on the opposite side, and he was peering around the corner as far as he dared when Fury finally answered his call.

"What in the hell did you send me after?" He demanded without so much as attempting a greeting. "No normal guy's got technology like that."

"You think we'd waste a resource like you on a normal guy?" Fury sounded almost amused by this, which was increasingly annoying owing to the fact that he'd sent Tony after somebody who was _trying to blow him up_. "We didn't send you to arrest some petty criminal. Your job is to find out _what_ that thing is."

"Your little train of spies run out or is Natasha just not laser proof?"

"Of course it didn't run out. I've got you there, don't I?"

Before Tony could protest that he was not Fury's anything the other man hung up, and there was no time left to dial again and insist on a better explanation. Another blast hit the wall just beside him, and he ducked out of the way just in time to avoid getting hit with the one that followed. Tony glanced around, searching for some way out of the situation, and his eyes fell upon the spilled contents of a now-destroyed wooden barrel. Tar, pouring all over the ruined shipping yard, useless now for ropes, but it served his purpose just fine.

Now to get the guy over to it. Tony stood up, well aware his ostentatious coloring would attract his assailant's attention, and made as if to fire a returning blast in their direction. Of course they countered immediately, and as he propelled himself out of the way they rushed forward to pursue him.

The lighting in the place was horrible, and even with the suit's built in night-vision there was so much wreckage and dust that Tony only caught a flash of silver before ducking to hide once more. There was a small gun in his shoulder, and he used that now to fire without having to reveal his head. There was a series of metallic clinks, then a heavy drumming as they moved towards his new position.

The tar wasn't far away now- the only problem was how to get them standing in it without being blasted by that laser. Considering what it had done to the virtually non-existent boathouse it would probably fry his suit, and even if he survived that he wouldn't last long afterward. This duck-and-cover tactic wouldn't work when he had to move toward open ground.

Well, the whole place _was_ built on a dock. No use preserving what little remained, right?

As the footsteps drew nearer Tony shot into the air, drawing a rain of fire that came within an inch of hitting him on either side. Before they could correct their aim he pulled a sharp turn and dove back toward the ground, crashing through the floor of the dock and into the sand below. The force of the fall sent up a cloud of the stuff, and he skidded a good five feet, so that he was face down in salt water. Instinctively he shook it off- forgetting for a moment he was protected by a layer of metal- before turning over to look up through the hole he'd made.

There was a glimpse of the person attacking him, but Tony was a bit more preoccupied with the oversized firearm aimed at his face. It lit up blue, obviously preparing to fire, and in the split second this gave him Tony pulled his hand back and shot his own cannon off at the dock.

The person, somehow, barely stumbled from the force of the blast so near to them, but a glow from nearby told Tony he'd hit his target. Hurrying to his feet, he shot out from under the dock and back to the air, planning to grab the distracted attacker when they were rushing from the fire.

However, the moment he turned back to face the dock he had to swerve from the path of another laser. What the hell were they doing? Didn't they notice they were standing in a virtual death trap?

Apparently not. The person, if that's what they were- the object down below was far bigger than any human he'd ever seen- continued to shoot at him, and Tony-despite his annoyance at all the swerving and ducking he was having to do- was about to call out a warning when the flame connected with their foot.

Rather than panic, or scream, or attempt to put out the fire the thing hesitated in its onslaught for a moment, turned to look down, and exploded into a cloud of heat and smoke that launched Tony back, crashing into the beach. Whether from surprise or the force of the fall, it took almost a minute before he could recover his breath and stand back up, the Iron Man suit whirring in protest. Great. The thing probably had sand in every possible joint- it'd take hours to clean it all out.

Back on the dock the explosion had died down into a vaguely human shaped, ten foot blaze that smoldered and twitched around Tony's target. Certain now that he was dealing with something inhuman, he checked the repulsion jets to make sure they were working and flew back to what was no longer even remotely a shipyard. There wasn't much left to examine, but it was easy to tell they were dealing with a machine, nothing organic and nothing piloted. Nothing well built either, if it blew up just from coming into contact with a tar-fire.

Tony crouched down to flip over the remaining sheets of metal, not even bothering with the smoldering wire frame. Nothing there'd tell him anything other than what burnt electric wire did to his suit. Most of it had little to tell him, but one sheet had a small, barely visible symbol imprinted on it. It was too damaged to read, but all it took was a quick scan and an order to Jarvis to run it through the 'net for a more viable answer.

_Shit._

Tony stared, unsure if he was furious, amused, or horrified by the match indicated on his screen. The insignia turned out to be one he knew quite well, and of course there was only one person who would be _dumb_ enough to leave their mark on a robot like this anyway.

Justin Hammer. But that was ridiculous- Tony'd destroyed all the Hammerdrones, and the idiotic engineer was locked up in jail with a forty-year sentence- not exactly the best environment to build anything in. And he'd never have been smart enough to equip them with guns like it'd had anyway, right? Far as Tony knew Vanko was the one who gave them the basic guns they'd been using when he and James went up against them, Hammer hadn't even been able to do that.

"Send Fury a message- I've got a present for him." Tony instructed at last, throwing the chunk of metal down and turning to walk away from the wreckage.

"You do not want to talk to him, sir?" Jarvis sounded genuinely curious- always a little unsettling from a programmed mind- and little wonder why. Chances were S.H.I.E.L.D. knew much more than they were letting on about the Hammerdrone, but Tony wasn't an idiot. He wouldn't be getting any information out of Fury until the man was good and ready to give it to him- no use working himself up in a conversation with him.

"Hell no. I'm going home to make sure Hammer's rotting in a cell like he's supposed to be."

* * *

><p>Tony originally planned to look up the prison records for Justin Hammer the moment he made it back to the manor, but one glance in the mirror told him it was time for a well-deserved drink first. If the suit was so scuffed it looked bruised, he'd had a damn rough night.<p>

So, not bothering to remove his armor, he grabbed a bottle of his favorite Jack Daniel's from the liquor cabinet and took the elevator upstairs to invite Loki to join him in drinking it down. When he checked the boy's room, however, it was empty. Normally Tony wouldn't have thought much of this, but he'd been so tired the day before that it didn't seem likely he'd be taking strolls around the manor. Still, his curiosity might have been more important than his injuries, so he stopped by the workshop to see if maybe the young god had found his way down there. Of course the door was locked by code, but that didn't seem like something likely to stop Loki.

But when he got downstairs Tony found the room empty, or at least lacking in a certain god of mischief. Feeling pretty certain that the boy hadn't developed the sudden desire to take a tour of the place, he frowned and called for his computer.

"Yes, sir?"

"Check the cameras for a sec- Loki around here anywhere?" Maybe he looked paranoid, but it seemed ridiculous to search the house with this much simpler option available. And, admittedly, he _was_ a little paranoid when it came to Loki. The guy was almost as bad as he was when it came to hurting himself.

"He does not appear to be in the house, sir." Jarvis replied apologetically. "He left some time ago and has not returned since."

"Shit." Tony cursed and started to run back to the elevator but decided against it- he wouldn't be searching on foot anyway. After a curt command the hatch he was so glad to have built was opened, and he shot up into the air as soon as he was clear.

Maybe it was because Fury'd sent him on a wild goose chase after some nonexistent criminal, or maybe it had something to do with the violent robot battle, but Tony had to make sure Loki was all right before he could calm himself down. He pulled a quick circle around the house and, spotting nothing from up high, landed with an echoing clang on the sidewalk in front of it. A passing mother drew her child to her, letting out an automatic scream while the girl stared on in delight, but he paid them no notice and began to scan the street. Pepper and James had threatened to do something about his refusal to kick out Loki- what if one of them had convinced S.H.I.E.L.D. to bring him back to that base? The robot could have been some distraction, it made more sense than assuming Hammer'd been building drones from prison, anyway. Or Loki could have gotten bored and left- but that cube thing of his was still in the workshop, wasn't it? The boy wouldn't have left without it, and he was in no shape to be going on strolls, so it seemed likely he'd vanished for some dangerous reason, or…

"I do believe you're frightening them."

Or he was right behind him. Yikes. Tony turned around, wondering how he'd possibly missed Loki when he was so close and found the boy sitting, half in shadow, on his porch. He seemed amused, yet he was covered in a sheen of sweat and breathing hard yet again, clutching something to his chest protectively. God dammit, couldn't he go a _day_ without making himself worse?

"What? Frightening, me? No way, I'm cute as a button." Tony protested, moving to join the other boy and survey the extent of his damage. He was talking, at least, that was a good sign. "You find an abandoned kid on my doorstep or something?"

"In some manner of speaking." Loki held out his arms enough to reveal what he was coveting- a kitten, no bigger than one of his hands, with fur all white save for a ring around the right eye and his entire left ear. The little guy had a nasty-looking tear on his leg, but it didn't seem to be bothering him. It peered up at Tony curiously, mewed, and buried its nose against Loki's arm and purred contentedly, tail twitching every now and again.

"Jesus Christ, what are you doing with that thing?" Tony hated cats. He hated animals in general, they were less fickle than humans but so obnoxiously _stupid_. "Where'd it even come from?"

"A dog was hurting it." Loki explained, scratching the thing behind the ears and smiling slightly as it rubbed against his hand. "I chased off the dog."

"By chased off you don't mean killed, right? Hate to be planting somethin' in my yard and find a dismembered mutt."

"I mean I blasted it back with a bit of magic and made it run away. Of course, I avoided the cat."

"You got something against dogs?"

"Against bullies."

Amusing, considering Loki was well known for playing the most horrible tricks on just about anybody he thought might fall for them. But Tony figured the dog must have reminded him of his brother to some extent, judging by his expression as he spoke about it. "Let's get you two inside then. What do these things eat anyway? It want any booze?"

Tony jokingly held out the bottle he'd almost forgotten he was holding, uncapped and tipped so that a few drops fell at a steady rate. He was joking, of course, but the cat gave a curious sniff and leaned his head forward to lap up the spilling alcohol. Startled, he pulled the bottle away and replaced the cork while Loki laughed, the grin on his face almost making up for the cat saliva on Tony's drink.

"If you're going to get the cat drunk you might want to avoid doing it in public." Loki warned, glancing pointedly at the confused passerby who had originally gathered to see why Iron Man had landed in the middle of the road and were now staring in horror as he fed a cat Jack Daniels. Whoops.

"Fine. We'll take it inside to get it drunk." He decided, holding out one hand and clicking his tongue awkwardly. "Here, you furry little…thing."

The cat shrunk back, either put off by the metal or the eerie sound of his voice coming out of the suit's so-called speakers. Loki, amused, lifted it carefully and placed it on the metallic glove. It trembled for a moment, but seemed to trust the god's instincts and curled into a ball, eyeing Tony warily through one eye while the other closed in a mockery of sleep. Loki himself moved to stand up, but even with one hand against the wall his leg gave out before he was halfway standing.

Tony quickly reached out to steady his shoulder, now doing his best to juggle the cat, the bottle, and Loki. "Whoa, careful. People're gonna think I got _you_ drunk. Here, let's go."

Loki nodded and allowed Tony to assist him, one arm over the armor's shoulders for support while he took the drink, amused. Though he'd been worried for a moment that the added height might cause some difficulty, the Iron Man saw to his disappointment that he was barely level with the other even in the suit. Damn, the guy was tall. Didn't help that he wasn't exactly Goliath himself, either.

"I bet people think you're some domestic abuse victim who keeps coming to my house after your wife beats you or something." Tony mused, commanding Jarvis unlock the door to make the task of getting it open a little easier. "Second time I've had to bring you into my house like this."

Loki laughed at that again, a foreign sound but one Tony found himself liking very much. There was tension in everything the boy did, every word, every movement, every sound- everything but that laugh. "That girl, Darcy, said the same thing. Well, I suppose in some ways you can blame this on a domestic fight, but not exactly an abusive relationship."

"Sure hope you weren't dating Thor. And, you know, abuse generally has to be on purpose."

"That too, of course. But I'm certain they all don't know that."

"The kitten helps too- makes you easily sympathized with. Hey, maybe if a reporter sees me helping you out they'll stop saying I'm a heartless corporate bastard with no emotion."

"Well are you?"

"Depends on the day of the week."

With a little difficulty, and the help of the elevator, they made it upstairs to the "kitchen", where Loki immediately took a seat and refused to return to his room until his adopted creature had been fed. Tony still had no idea what cats ate, so he just held out various things from the fridge and waited to see if it would take them.

"That's a no to celery." Tony decided, tossing the vegetable aside seeing as he had no plans to eat it himself any time soon. "Think it likes cheese?"

"Cats are carnivores." Loki pointed out, drumming his fingers on the counter as the cat stared at them, wide eyed, and occasionally reached out to swat one before jumping and hiding behind the salt and pepper shakers. "Or milk. Mammals like milk."

"Valid point." Tony agreed, closing the vegetable drawer (which he wasn't entirely sure why he had opened anyway) and grabbing a container of goat milk. "This work?"

"Try it."

Shrugging, he got out the smallest bowl he could find- nonetheless farther across than the cat was- and filled it up about two inches with the thick, creamy milk before setting the carton aside. He scooted it towards the cat, who was too busy circling around Loki's hand in an attempt at a surprise attack to notice. Suddenly it stopped, haunches in the air and tail twitching, before pouncing on his thumb and wrapping around it, chewing the fingernail viciously. The god merely smiled in amusement and nudged it towards the bowl, which it finally noticed and bounded towards happily. Rather than attempt to reach its tiny tongue for the milk the thing actually jumped _in_ the bowl and started to lap it up, no doubt foreshadowing a very messy kitchen.

Loki was still looking at the thing as if he'd never seen anything better, but Tony had to resist the urge to grab it by the tail and toss it outside. Stupid cat. "All right, you two get to know each other. I'm getting' out of this thing then goin' out."

"If you return drunk I've been told not to let you in." Loki warned calmly. "Though rest assured, I would bring you a blanket for the yard."

"The thought that counts." Tony conceded. "Not gonna ask where I'm going?"

"If it will abate your appetite for attention, then yes. Where are you doing?"

"Getting you a phone. Next time you vanish from the house you can just text me instead of capturing strays for company."

* * *

><p>VVV<p>

The cat, as of yet unnamed, had curled up in the bowl as soon as its stomach was full and immediately fallen asleep there. He stroked its fur without paying it much attention, wondering vaguely why Stark had believed him.

He had saved the cat from a dog, yes, but of course that wasn't all he'd done. How could he have been out all day merely for that? Not that he'd been up to anything particularly worthy of attention, but even so it would have been difficult to explain his sudden desire to get outside and _think_ for hours on end. That sort of thing just wasn't common amongst the mortals- they didn't have as much time as an Aesir, and even when he saw them sitting around and pondering something they didn't do it the way he did. He could sit over a day and brood over some trivial thing.

Yet he hadn't been able to keep still. He'd paced, circled the neighborhood, played around with magic, broken the branch off a tree, drove his fist against concrete and done just about _anything_ to clarify the mess in his brain that could barely classify as coherent thought.

The nightmare at S.H.I.E.L.D.'s base was still plaguing him. He'd been so drugged with pain and drowsiness the day before that he hadn't paid it much attention, and then Stark had fallen asleep on him and pretty much wiped out any rational train of thought. Even that morning he'd been fine, until Pepper asked him curiously what Stark had meant when he said Loki'd punched a woman.

Then of course he'd remembered _why_ he'd woken up in a panic, felt the woman's hand on his arm as blurred shapes rushed into the room, and struck her with literally inhuman reflexes before anybody could get him to relax. That damn nightmare- which he still pinned on the doctor and those stitches, which had damaged his reputation enough by keeping him there howling in pain for nearly an hour and then added onto it by messing up his sleep, too.

He read the human myths about himself and the other Asgardians, he knew very well how many stories they made up about his family. There was hardly any truth in his tales especially- anything strange or abnormal was accounted to, usually through some uncomfortable relation with an animal, the god they feared the most and liked the least. (Strange, considering he'd never even hurt the mortals when he _was_ on Earth.) Earthquakes, multi-legged horses, giant wolves, the potential end of the world… But every now and then something good supposedly came as an indirect result of his mischief- mjolnir, for example, was the byproduct of stirring up a dwarf's jealousy.

A mind half delirious with pain and sleep was not one to be left to its own devices. He'd have loved then to be given more of whatever Stark had knocked him out with, but he was left to fall asleep with no assistance and his brain given free run of his subconscious. Of course he'd had a nightmare, one bad enough to send half the building into a panic, convinced someone was being murdered in the other room as he took up screaming a second time- from an imaginary pain rather than a physical one, but Loki rather felt he was better suited for the stitches.

As was common with dreams he had no idea how it started. He knew it was innocent enough but that was all, an average day on Asgard. Somehow he and Thor had erupted into an argument, which was rare, about something or another that the elder brother disapproved of hearing from his sibling. Loki had a vague feeling Stark was involved, but in what way he couldn't pinpoint. Thor had roared that no prince of Asgard should speak as he was, and Loki had protested that he was a jotun anyway, so it didn't matter. Suddenly they were in the main reception hall-nobody noticed the change of course- and it was full of people, all of whom began to turn and stare at him suspiciously upon hearing this. Thor said he would have to stop talking before he made things worse for the family, and Loki protested that it was Thor who tarnished their reputation, not him, but nobody was listening and his brother grabbed his arms and pinned him to the ground, insisting he be silenced. The other Asgardians then lined up- the notion was ridiculous, but it had seemed entirely plausible in the dream- and at his brother's suggestion took it in turn to apply a stitch to his mouth while Thor kept him in place, using a thick black thread that didn't tear no matter how hard he struggled. Sif, Heimdall, Volstagg, Hogun, Fandrall with a look of disappointment, people he recognized by face only and even guards he'd never seen- everyone save his parents and the maid who had cared for him as a child. His lips should have been sewn shut long before the line ran out but they weren't, and he was half mad with pain that his dream self couldn't express while in reality he was screaming until finally there was pressure on his arm and Loki, thinking it was one final stitch and he couldn't possibly _stand_ that without losing his mind, attacked them and awoke to find the arms holding back where no longer Thor's but two strange soldier's, and it was Natasha and not an Asgardian pressing a hand against her bruised eye with a look of surprise and annoyance.

He honestly hadn't meant to harm Natasha- he liked her far more than the other mortals. She was strong and defiant and familiar, but she still had compassion and kindness without ever showing a dash of pity. Even when the doctor had been tearing through his skin with a needle and thread and he'd been screaming enough to wake the dead she never seemed to feel sorry for him, standing beside him and letting him nearly crush her hand with his own and forcing the physician out of the room the moment he'd finished. She didn't try to comfort him, pity him, or mock him for his agony- merely ignored the pathetic sobs of pain that eventually dissolved into the slow breathing of sleep. So he was, in fact, fairly sorry to have hurt her.

But at the time he hadn't been. He'd been panicked and furious and hyper-cooled his arms so that the two holding onto him drew back with their own cries of pain, hands black with cold. Loki didn't even pay notice to the jotun skin this had revealed, looking around frantically for a moment in a feverish daze and demanding the one thing that lay at the root of his troubled thoughts.

_"Where's Stark? Stark! Where is he? _Where's_ Stark?"_

It may or may not have been a reasonable thing to want at the time. Tony Stark was the only thing even vaguely familiar to him on Earth other than perhaps Pepper, and certainly the only person at the base who had ever seen him in a similar situation before. But Loki knew it was a bit… different. He wasn't befriending the man, was he? He certainly was easy to warm up to, but he couldn't afford to get close to him like that. Or could he? It would complicate things, but it might make getting what he needed for revenge a little easier.

And there was the problem, the virtual prisoner's dilemma of his living situation. He could disregard Stark completely and be assured at least a small reward for it, or risk companionship with him and gain either a huge benefit or lose everything he could hope for on earth by becoming too attached.

The cat gave furious meow and began to claw at his hand. Startled, Loki drew back and saw by the ruffled scraps of fur that it was now licking smooth that he'd been taking his frustration out on the poor thing without even noticing. He gave it an apologetic pat and earned a hiss in response, but it didn't run away or swat him again.

"You're quite small." He noted, watching it shake the milk out of its fur and attempt to climb free of the bowl. "Now why did your mom let that dog hurt you?"

The cat merely glanced up at him with huge eyes and meowed, a high pitched, keening sound, demanding help. Loki lifted it easily from the bowl and set it back on the counter, where it began to dash back and forth in pursuit of its own tail. It didn't seem at all broken up about the situation- no pain for the wound from a dog so small its mother, standing nearby and even bigger than it, could easily have fought off.

"Guess we're both the black sheep of the family." Loki murmured. "Too small for a giant and too small for a wild cat. The difference being I didn't destroy half your race before recuing _you_."

Because the thing really did remind him of himself in the oddest ways- the abandonment, the clever look in its eyes, the way it bit back when upset as if it could do nothing else. He wanted to take care of it, there certainly couldn't be any of the complications _he'd_ dealt with unless the feline community had developed a hierarchy and higher thought since his last visit to Earth.

"When did we get a cat?"

Loki glanced up at Pepper's entrance, amused to see the surprise on her face as she faltered in the doorway. Clearly animals in the Stark household were highly unusual. "I rescued it from a dog and Stark bathed it in milk. Unintentionally, of course."

"Tony hates cats." She set down her purse and walked over cautiously, offering her hand to the small bundle of fur. It looked up at her curiously and sniffed the edge of her fingers, licking them after a moment of wariness.

"So he said. I think he can tolerate this one though." After all, the thing was absolutely tiny. Though that didn't mean it was incapable of endless mischief, knowing cats as he did.

"Hopefully." She slid into the stool across from him and smiled slightly down at the cat, who gave an appreciative meow and rolled onto his back, clearly beckoning for one of them to scratch his stomach. "Where is he?"

"He mentioned a phone." Loki recalled as he obliged the impatient kitten, smiling as it began to attack his hand playfully. "I think I scared him earlier."

Pepper looked him up and down, noting the lingering exhaustion in his eyes and the sweat on his forehead. "I'm sure you did. He's absolutely paranoid about you."

"My only fault is that I care too much."

Loki laughed when Stark's voice came up the stairway to them, causing the girl to start slightly and then give an amused frown, one eyebrow raised as she watched her boss come up to join them. "Were you waiting there just so you could make that joke?"

"Leave that up to you to find out." Stark was carrying something about the size of his hand, metallic and rectangular, that he tossed to Loki with barely a warning. "Catch."

Hurt though he was his reflexes were intact, and the young god snatched the object out of the air easily. He recognized a phone similar to the ones he saw Pepper and Stark carrying, with a label of "Stark Industries" broadcasted on the back. The screen lit up at his touch, flashed "Welcome, Loki" as a mechanic voice repeated the words and gave way to a menu over a wilderness backdrop. Odd choice for a wallpaper.

"Check the contacts, put all our numbers in there already. The little book thing in the corner." Stark instructed, pointing to the icon before moving to the fridge and pulling it open to search its contents.

Loki clicked the image, bringing up a short list of names and numbers. Agent Coulson- who probably had no idea his number was even available to Stark, James Rhodes, Natasha, Nick Fury, Pepper, Tony Stark.

"What's that next to your name?" He wondered, noticing a "less than" symbol followed by a three and feeling quite certain contacts generally did not contain mathematical problems.

"Turn it on the side." He suggested as Pepper rolled her eyes.

"…. Get rid of it." Loki demanded, holding out the phone.

"No."

"I'm never calling you if there's a heart next to your name every time."

"So I'll call you, you're in my phone already. Oh, Pep, texted you his number."

"She can call me. I'm blocking you."

"Ouch."

Pepper listened to this entire conversation with a look of the utmost amusement, turning between the two as they spoke and shaking her head. The cat, curious, attempted to imitate her, and the image was so ridiculous that Loki couldn't help grinning despite his annoyance with Stark. He put out his hand and beckoned for it, and the cat came bounding over happily and settled itself easily into the palm of his hand, licking his wrist for some reason only it could comprehend.

"Why'd you keep that thing?" Stark wondered, sitting beside Pepper and eyeing the cat distastefully. It gave a disapproving hiss and the fur on its back stuck up, as though it could sense his contempt.

Loki opened his mouth fully intending to lie, but the retort on his tongue reformed before he could pull it back. "It reminded me of myself, I suppose."

"You're small, furry, and got attacked by a dog?"

"Not quite. The cat's mother was watching it but didn't help- I suppose he was too small." He patted it sympathetically but the little thing seemed not to care, unbothered by thoughts of abandonment in face of warmth and food. "You are aware that I am a giant's son?"

Stark studied his face for a moment then nodded, as impassive as ever. Pepper, by contrast, was looking uncomfortable, as though she wasn't sure whether to remain silent or express some sort of sympathy. "Don't think anybody's gonna tell that cat you're its real dad, don't worry."

"Well I should hope not." Loki smirked slightly, glad for the man's inability to hold back a joke. "It's a bit easier to recognize when you're not even the same body shape."

"Your dad say anything to you?" Stark wondered lightly, earning a reproachful look from his assistant, who clearly believed he was lacking tact.

The anger Loki had expected to feel at such a comment flared only briefly, evaporating all other emotion and leaving his chest hollow. "Not until I realized it myself. It was a well-kept secret, he'd even convinced me I was a candidate for the throne."

His voice wasn't even bitter anymore, the resentment at being lied to for so long absent now despite his fury when recounting the same story to Jane. There was no connection to his family here, no ghost of Thor's presence to replace a longing for home with lingering hatred despite how much Loki preferred the latter.

"You don't like your dad?" Stark wondered, though something in his voice said even he disbelieved it.

"I love my father." Loki replied with a little too much fervor. "It's the blood one I found… disagreeable."

He nodded, as if conceding some point. "Never got along well with my old man. He wasn't big with kids, ignored me for years. The only nice thing he ever did for me was when he was already dead."

"We're both biologically fatherless then." Loki noticed, though he at least still had Odin, in some senses. The man thought his son dead- though it was difficult to feel guilt when imagining the pain this must have brought him. Envisioning his mother's reaction to the news, however, brought a new kind of ache to the ever-present pain in his chest.

"Your real dad kill your fake dad?" Stark wondered, and despite himself Loki was vaguely impressed. Most people would have assumed the "real" father was the one whose blood they shared, but the engineer seemed to know better. Perhaps he'd grown up similarly enough.

"Not quite." Pepper glanced up curiously, too polite to ask what had happened but too human to keep the desire to know from showing in her eyes. He couldn't help smirking slightly when he saw it, though he felt anything but amused. "I did."

She tried to master her expression, but there was fear there beyond her control there. Stark meanwhile seemed impassive, as if he'd been expecting that response. "Yeah, family reunions suck."

"I doubt he ever knew I was his son." Loki mused, knowing Odin would have kept the information back if he could to up the value of his bargaining tool. Shock factor was always useful, though it didn't seem likely Laufey would believe the tale, anyway. Or care. "We haven't got the biggest family resemblance, if you cannot tell."

The sarcasm was wasted on Stark, who actually took a moment to survey the other man before shaking his head. "Don't know what frost giants look like. I'm guessing he's taller."

"Much, And I'm guessing your father didn't have a glowing triangle in his chest?"

"This thing's to keep my _heart_ going, useless if you don't have one." Stark replied, rapping his knuckles against the device with an unusual tinge of anger to his voice. "If my old man knew how to make something like this he'd have made himself live forever"

"He was in a car crash, Tony." Pepper pointed out sharply. "And he left you all that information. You would be dead without him."

"I'd be dead without a lot of people. Dad, you, James, Jack Daniels…"

"Tony."

"This isn't anything new to you, Pepper. The only nice thing dad ever did for me was leave a recording calling me his greatest creation- he couldn't even stand to talk to me face to face." Stark seemed almost to have forgotten Loki was there for a moment, turning back to him only when the cat hissed at their raised voices.

"I don't know your father, so I can't make assumptions." The young god said after a moment's silence, rubbing the kitten's fur to quiet it. "Children need affection, I suppose, from both parents. In my case Thor was the dominant recipient of it, and in your case it was his work, yes?"

"Work, alcohol, clubs." Stark shrugged. "Kinda like me. But at least I had the sense not to have kids."

"Well, if it's any condolence I agree that you would make a terrible father." Loki assured in absolute earnest.

"Good. You can help me not-raise them."

"You'll have to obtain them first."

"I'll just get somebody not-pregnant. Or fake-adopt."

"Here." Pepper reached forward and took the cat from Loki's hand, holding it out to Stark and dropping it on his lap. "This can be your child."

Startled, the cat looked around in a panic then fixed its gaze on the short man's eyes, shrinking back fearfully. "Well? You wanna be my son?" He offered, to which the cat responded by blinking in confusion, arching his back, and hissing furiously.

**A/N: And there we go, Loki's dream's explained and a plot arrives, quite literally blasting Tony off his feet. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and I'd love to hear your feedback on it.:D Nothing makes my brain get off its lazy behind and start working like reviews, good, bad, whatever. (Though really if you don't like it I'm wondering how you made it through over 70 pages….) **


	9. Justin Hammer's Prison Break

**A/N: I hope everyone's having an awesome 2012 so far, and none of you guys had a bad incident with alcohol and family dinners. I had a lot of fun with the new character who shows up in this one, but his dialogue sounds really awkward unless I imagine it in the actor's voice. Whatever. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, and I'm sure at least one of you's guessed what's up by now, but I hope you're enjoying it nonetheless.**

**And holy fudgenuggets this is almost in the double digits. Gasp.**

**Disclaimer: I own none of the characters or ideas in this story, except the cat. The cat is mine. The rest belongs to Stan Lee and Disney.**

VVV

Tony waited the night out for a call or information from S.H.I.E.L.D., but didn't hear so much as a word until late the next morning. He'd been running on three or four hours of sleep, a cup of coffee mixed with rum, and the irresistibly energizing sound of 'Deadmau5' blaring in the background as he attempted to form something that would later resemble a dining table while Loki watched in amusement. They'd been arguing over whether or not to refurnish the kitchen- Tony wanted to take down a wall, while the other man insisted that this was ridiculous and offered to remove the island for him instead, though wouldn't state his methods for doing so- when J.A.R.V.I.S. called in saying somebody was at the door.

After telling Loki not to destroy his kitchen, or magically refurbish the table for that matter, it took the fun out of a project, before he returned Tony grabbed an oil-stained rag off the counter and made his way to the entrance of the house. He'd been expecting Pepper or James despite knowing both had keys- maybe an annoying reporter- and been hoping for Fury, but when he opened the door and found Coulson smiling that condescending smile he had to resist the urge to slam the door and lock him out. News from him was still news, just… annoying news.

"Hello, Mr. Stark. I have some information to share with you and your friend." He hesitated slightly on the last word, disapproval marking his every feature.

"Share away." Tony had no intentions of letting Coulson pester Loki, not when the boy was still barely able to walk and talk without collapsing.

"With both of you. Where is he?" Coulson peered over Tony's shoulder, but the view was of little interest to either of them. "If you'll bring me to him we can begin talking."

"I'm not good enough for you? I'm hurt."

"It's in regards to Justin Hammer."

A moment's silence, and Tony sighed reluctantly and swung the door open the rest of the way to let the agent inside. "You play dirty, you know that?"

"Of course I do. It's my job." Coulson retorted, seemingly unaware of the many opportunities for taunting he had just opened himself up to as he entered the mansion. "Where's Loki?"

"Awfully fixated on him, don't you think?"

"Answer the question."

"Potentially building a table or violently remodeling my kitchen."

To his credit Coulson merely raised an eyebrow and nodded. S.H.I.E.L.D. probably offered lessons on putting up with Tony's behavior- they were all way too good at it considering how few times they'd met.

Loki was leaning over the slab of wood which would eventually be a table, tracing in shimmering black lines on its incomplete surface with one hand while the other balanced on the edge of the surface. He glanced at them curiously as they entered, but moved back to whatever reconstruction he was planning when he recognized Coulson.

"Coming to _us_ now? You're getting popular, Stark." He mused as he made some adjustment, luckily not slicing the wood with his little magic and, so far as Tony could tell, only making marks. It was a bit hard to see what he was doing, especially when he was leaning over like that.

Tony didn't realize he was having a hard time looking away until Coulson cleared his throat loudly. "Huh? Oh, yeah, Coulson's got some story time for us." He introduced, shaking his head and frowning slightly at his mind for running away with his thoughts like that.

"A story? Do tell." Loki stood up with an over-acted eagerness that was either meant to be humorous or taunting, and either way was hilarious coming from him.

"I assume you're familiar with the events involving Hammercorp two months ago."

"Not in the slightest. Begin there." He ordered, waving a hand to clear all the markings on the table. Shame, Tony'd've liked to at least get some ideas from it. "Is this another weapons company?"

"Depends on your definition. Personally, I like to think you have to be competent to count as an engineer, but the government disagrees." Tony replied sarcastically, meriting an annoyed look from Coulson, which he ignored as per usual.

"Let _me_ explain.

"After Stark Industries stopped producing weapons the military hired Hammercorp as its main weapons contractor. Two months ago there was a meeting at which Mr. Stark humiliated Justin Hammer and exposed a project of his that resulted in Hammer losing his license. Not long after that an engineer named Ivan Vanko tried to kill Tony on a race track. He was arrested and brought to jail, set for transfer immediately. Hammer broke him out and brought him to a secure location to make a deal."

"Don't forget what the meeting was about. That's my favorite part of the story." Tony recalled nostalgically, pleased as ever by his performance that day. You could call him many things, so long as witty was one of them.

"I'm trying to get to the point here." Coulson retorted. "Are you following me, Mr. Laufeyson?"

"Oh, by all means, continue." Loki assured in as dry a voice as he could manage, not an ounce of interest in his expression. "I must say, your oratory skills are outstanding."

Coulson's lip twitched dangerously, but he took up his narrative again in a controlled tone. "Hammer commissioned Vanko to build him a copy of the Iron man suits to reveal at a technology expo. Vanko betrayed him, the drones attempted to destroy the audience, and Hammer was given forty years in prison for destruction of federal property, assisted attempted murder, and aiding and abetting in jailbreak."

"Exciting." Loki mused. "And now you've lost him."

The twitch again, and a strained smile. "Yes. We've lost him."

"So what, Hammer pulled a prison break?" Tony demanded, unsure why he hadn't considered that before. Probably because the man was an absolute idiot- but he'd gotten Vanko out, hadn't he?

"Relax."

"Maybe I'll do that when you guys give me some proof that you're at least competent enough to make sure Justin _Hammer_ doesn't find his way out of federal prison!"

"He didn't escape." Coulson assured gruffly. "Four days ago the prison was visited by some multimillion-dollar businessman that bought Hammer into freedom. Two days after that he was hired by this company."

He tossed a thick, neatly bound packet onto the counter for Tony to pick up. "'Lernaea. Environmental technology and automobile design'? What the hell is this? How do you buy somebody into freedom?" He demanded, throwing the packet down again without so much as skimming it.

Loki, evidently more interested in the company than in his host's temper tantrums, pulled it over and began to read. "The government can be bribed, Mr. Stark."

"Assuming S.H.I.E.L.D. _can't_ be, then I'd love to know why you don't go get his ass and throw him back in a cell. Unless you want me to do it, but I can't guarantee I'll be very gentle." Tony warned, meeting Coulson's eye and making no effort to hide his anger.

"First we want to know why somebody would spend fifteen million to free Justin Hammer." The agent replied after keeping up his silence long enough to frustrate Tony even further. "That's the kind of money you pay for a plot of land, not a failed engineer. Whoever's running that company has an ulterior motive, and we want Loki to find out what it is."

"Absolutely not. Out of the question." Tony replied before the god had even glanced up curiously from his reading. "He's still hurt."

"He's the best man for the job. And I seem to recall you claiming that you two were partners?" Coulson's smirk was genuine once again. "If he's against it Mr. Laufeyson can always return to base for surveillance."

Loki laughed at that, earning a baffled frown from both the other men. "You humans branded me the god of lying- I'm always up for a little masquerade." He seemed to cherish the word, lengthening the 's' so that the following click sounded almost like a kiss, the final sound rolling his mouth into a confident smile. "You want me to investigate this business under the guise of an engineer seeking employment, yes?"

"Exactly."

"That's ridiculous- you have double agents and spies filling your network. Natasha's like James Bond or something, have her do it. Hammer'll find her more attractive anyway." Tony insisted, a little annoyed with himself for the mental image he created of Loki flirting with Hammer to move along the ploy. "He's not even from Earth, Hammer'll notice something."

"You'll find I'm quite clever when I wish to be." Loki promised with an amused smile. "Though I wonder that you're trusting me with something so… important."

It was clear from his tone that the god thought the so-called mission to be far from a priority, but Coulson did his best to ignore this. "You're the only man for the job." He admitted. "There's a possibility of Hammer recognizing any of our men. You, however, have been on this planet for less than a month. Other than that you're also a shape changer, capable of using magic, and an expert at deception. Plus you're living with Tony Stark, that can easily be worked to your advantage."

"What exactly would you like me to find out?"

"The company is relatively new. We checked and they only bought the building four months ago." Coulson explained, pressing his hands behind his back in an official manner. "The owner's been able to avoid making any sort of public statement- your first goal is to find out who runs the company and what they want with a weapons engineer like Justin Hammer."

"I daresay I can manage that."

"You nuts? You can barely go for a walk without falling over. What if they realize you're tricking them?" Tony protested, stepping forward to whisper harshly in Loki's ear, for some reason reluctant to share with Coulson.

The other boy chuckled again, a very unusual sound from this close. "Have a little confidence in me. I'll deal with this, then you can throw your man back in prison." He replied quietly, so that Tony had to strain to hear. Then, smirking at the secrecy, he turned to Coulson and gave a mock-polite nod. "Show us to the company."

* * *

><p>VVV<p>

Loki couldn't help toying with Stark by playing nice with Coulson. The man was paranoid in the most unusual senses, and the veiled frustration was too much fun to watch. Besides, as the Taxi he'd been instructed to call pulled up in front of a towering, shining-black corporate building he had to admit there was another reason for his cooperation. The technology he might find was, of course, a benefit… but whoever this Hammer was Stark seemed to hate him, and it wasn't much trouble to do him the favor of getting him arrested again.

Therefore he was in better spirits about this whole thing then he should have been. Practicality aside, he was, at heart, a trickster. He'd have been tempted to shapeshift into a woman to make the joke even more fun, but that might have made things a bit more uncomfortable with Stark than he wanted them to be.

There were a few expected security measures once he entered- a metal detector that failed to notice the wire Coulson had given him, men in uniform who missed his hostile intent. For a new company there was a surprisingly large amount of people bustling about, most of them with nametags or suits, and very few women. One of the few was tapping away idly at a computer behind a desk labeled "reception", and another was watching him curiously from across the room.

_"You're not going to be able to get in today. Ask them for a resume and we'll see to it you get an appointment."_

Coulson's voice, audible only to him, was as amusing as ever. Really, did he think Loki was the patient type?

The girl glanced up from her computer as he approached and sighed dramatically. "Can I help… you." The lethargy vanished in the space of a few seconds as poorly concealed lust pushed away her surprise. Loki couldn't help smiling, which only made her sit up even straighter. Earthlings were _so_ easy to impress.

"I'd like to see Justin Hammer, please." He requested, smile never faltering even as Coulson snapped at him through the line.

_"Stick to what I told you, Laufeyson!"_

"Do you have an appointment?" She wondered, an idiotic grin with batting eyelashes to match alighting her face as she beamed up at him.

"Tell him there's an employee from Stark Industries who would just _love_ to meet him."

The girl's face fell, whether because she saw the threat in his smile or something in his words had surprised her. "From… Do you have any paperwork?"

"Of course." He reached into his pocket, grasped the illusion of a company I.D., and presented it to the baffled woman. She stared at the thing as though she'd never seen anything like it, returned the card, and asked him to wait a moment.

She took up the phone and dialed rapidly, doing her best to keep her voice down when an answer came through. "Mr. Hammer? There's someone here who would like to see you. Yes, sir, I know your busy… I'm sorry, sir. Yes, sir. Well, see, he works for Tony Stark."

Loki smirked at both the silence on both ends that followed this, and the annoyed demands from Coulson for him to explain himself. A moment later the girl hung up the phone, and smiled at him with renewed flirtatiousness. "I'm sorry for the wait… He'll see you now if you like. His office is on the fourth floor, to your right."

"Thank you. This won't be long, I hope?"

"Oh, he seemed very excited to talk to you. I don't think he'll keep you waiting. But uh, if he does… I get off in three hours."

He was tempted to congratulate her sarcastically for the fact, but merely condoled her with a suggestive smirk and made his way to the elevator, thankful for Hammer's enthusiasm. He was feeling far better than he had been the day before, but waking up at three in the morning because Stark had the sudden immense desire to build furniture had not helped his condition in the least.

The elevator was empty, so he was free to make his brief reply to Coulson. "You work with Stark, I'm sure your so-called employees being better at their job than you are can't be all that unusual to you." He retorted calmly, watching the buttons light up with a click each time he passed a new floor.

_"I don't know what game you're playing, but you can't rush this sort of thing. There's a _procedure _for this-"_

"All the better if I don't follow it. Really, and here you're telling me you want to surprise the man." Loki laughed more for the benefit of Stark and Pepper- whom he knew would be listening- than out of actual amusement. The man began to make a curt reply, but the lift reached its destination and his audience paid the rant no attention, nodding politely to a well-dressed man who took his place on the elevator.

The halls of the building were nothing special, especially compared to the grandeur or the entrance lobby. Most of the doors seemed to lead to nowhere, and people were running about with securely shut boxes all throughout the floor, occasionally coming dangerously close to bumping against him and apologizing before bustling away. Loki, conscious that a collision would not do his sore chest any favors, did his best to keep near the wall.

There was no need to search long- the only office with a name on the door was that of Justin Hammer. A sure sign the man's had a tendency to nurture his ego, if ever there was one. He knocked on the door, one hand still in his coat pocket, and waited even after being given a call to come inside. After a few moments silence the door swung open, revealing a short, haggard-looking blond with clean cut hair, clothing, and glasses.

"Justin Hammer, I assume. Sorry, I wasn't sure I heard you right. It's rather noisy out here." Loki lied with an affable smile, extending a hand in greeting.

Hammer took it in both of his own, shaking it eagerly before stepping back. "Oh, it's no problem. Happens to me all the time." He lied in a much less convincing manner, stuffing both hands into his jacket pocket, immediately pulling one out to beckon him inside. "Come in, come in. I tell you, it's great to see someone with a bit of class around here. Haven't got any good workers around in the longest time."

The man absolutely defined sleazy, in his announcer's voice and coddling manner he could have been the poster boy for poor salesmen. Loki, amused, followed him further into the room, noting the small desk, cluttered boxes, and single visitor's chair. Not exactly a lavish arrangement.

"You want anything? Water, food, I could get you a little wine. Anything you want." He promised, waving an arm around as if to show off the absent luxuries.

"I don't believe I will, thank you." Loki took the seat in front of the desk without waiting for it to be offered to him, watching Hammer's expression as a frown twitched across his lips. No doubt he recognized the disrespect for his authority shown in that movement.

Hammer sat opposite him, eager despite his annoyance. When it became clear Loki wasn't going to begin business negotiations he cleared his throat. "Where are you from, uh… what was your name?"

What a pathetic man. Even his hesitations were false, over-long and with a pursing of the lips only actors ever bothered with. "Luke Lauson." The name, though normal for Midgardian standards and therefore stirred no suspicion, was close enough to his own that he would respond if it was called.

"All right Luke, you mind if I call you Luke?" Amused, Loki shook his head, and Hammer continued. "You come from around here? I mean, you've gotta have been here for awhile. Stark _Industries_. Ha, well, that's a hard job to get."

The flattery was painfully thick, far worse than even Fandral's attempts to seduce a woman. Or man, for that matter. "Not if you have the mind for it." Loki replied calmly, adapting the same tone of voice he generally did when tact no longer mattered. As with Laufey, it didn't matter how rude Loki was- Hammer was going to accept his proposal.

"And I'm betting you do." The man said after a moment's difficulty restraining his annoyance. "A guy like you though… Working for some slob like Tony Stark?"

"I have nothing personally against Tony, so I hope you'll take that into consideration." Loki retorted before he could stop himself. "I am aware that you do, however, and that's why I'm here."

"What? No. Tony and I are… we're pals. Just… friendly competition, that's all." Hammer assured, feigning the most ridiculously heavy display of surprise he had ever seen. "We're… yeah, we're cool. Completely cool."

Loki smirked, deciding not to bother calling him out. "Oh? Then you would never consider stealing his plans, I'm sure."

Hammer swallowed, hands clasped together on the desk as he attempted to read the god's expression. "S-stealing? No, of course not. Why would- why do you say that?" He gave a nervous chuckle, looking to the other man expectantly.

"Because, Mr. Hammer, though I am a friend of Tony's I find his mind often… goes to waste." Loki lied calmly, aware of an amusing intake of breath through the microphone. Coulson, no doubt, now recognized the ploy. "There's far more good his designs could do than provide a bit of clean energy, or lying about on the floor because he's bored of them halfway through."

"He has… designs he doesn't use? Wow. What a waste." Hammer's desire was painfully evident, despite his attempts to conceal it. It was humorous, but a little sad- like watching a turtle on its back. "Just leaves them lying around?"

Loki nodded, not bothering to hide his smile now. "Oh _no_, that's just… Why would he do that?" God, the man's efforts to seem innocent, to put his preluded question off as some sort of martyrdom… He'd never seen anything like that. "With a mind like his, too."

"Yes, it's such a shame." Loki cut in dryly, leaning forward. "I'm not here to play games with you, Mr. Hammer. I'm offering you the chance to hire me. I won't simply sell you the designs."

"You want a job? You want to work for _me_?" Now the surprise was genuine, as was the flattery. "It would be… I'd have to consult the CEO of course. Why would you want to leave Stark's company? I mean, you could make so much money there, or you could take the designs and sell them… you could probably make them yourself."

"I have neither the time nor the assets. As for selling the designs… I'd rather not risk the country's safety by offering these to an opposing power. As an engineering company I'm sure Lernaea can be trusted?" Loki wondered curiously, with a heavy emphasis on the portion about risk.

Hammer didn't miss that, the suggestion that whatever Stark was not making could be a weapon, something dangerous. Something he wanted. "Absolutely. This country is our company's top priority. Listen, anything Tony's working on that could benefit the people of America… I'll do anything to get that up and running."

"Then I'll be waiting in the lobby. I expect you'll call me once you've finished seeing about that job." He pushed back the chair and stood, waiting for Hammer to follow suit and shaking the man's hand once more only when it was offered to him. "A pleasure talking with you."

VVV

Tony felt like dancing. If there was anything to remind him why he insisted on Loki staying in his house it was this- that conversation alone would have been worth all the trouble. Shame there was no video feed.

"Loki, you get a Nobel prize for that one." Tony called, leaning in to speak into the microphone Coulson was holding.

The agent gave him an annoyed look and covered it, then waited for him to move away before removing his hand. Pepper and Tony were refusing to leave, despite his insistence that he take the equipment elsewhere. There was no trouble setting it up in the manor, so he hadn't been able to come up with a viable excuse not to, though he certainly seemed to be regretting it.

_"I'm glad I could amuse you. Hammer really is a very simple-minded man. I'm amazed you failed to track his motives."_ Loki replied calmly, not-so-subtly baiting Coulson.

"You weren't authorized to do any of that." The man retorted angrily. "Now you've obligated us to provide blueprints and data, which we don't have, to a man who will use them for his ow-"

_"You don't truly think I haven't planned for that, do you, Coulson?"_ He laughed again, a slightly eerie sound through the buzz of the equipment. _"I'm very good at my jokes, don't w-"_

Suddenly the sound clicked out, not even the buzzing left behind. "Mr. Laufeyson? Respond. Mr Laufeyson!"

Coulson swore and stood up, reaching for his phone and throwing the microphone aside. "God dammit, this is why I said to stick to the story. If the equipment's down-"

"You sent him out with faulty equipment?" Tony wasn't sure whether to be amazed at S.H.I.E.L.D.'s stupidity or furious for Loki's sake, maybe a bit of both. "Then get him out of there."

"It's not that simple, Mr. Stark." Coulson replied, not even feigning patience. "He's come up with his own cover story. Assuming nothing's happened and the wire is just malfunctioning, we would ruin the entire operation by running in there."

"And if something _has_ happened?" Pepper spoke up before Tony could, stepping forward to provide the voice of reason. He was inclined to feel indignant that she'd felt the need to do so, but then again he had been preparing a few extremely unkind words in response to the comment that his virtually-crippled, culturally ignorant, pathologically lying friend may or may not be dealing with a spy treatment without them knowing because _the fucking wire broke_.

"Then we'll get him out of there as soon as we know." Coulson replied sharply, holding the phone to his ear. "Hello? This is agent Coulson, I need confirmation that our spy in Lernaea's building hasn't been compromised. Don't alert the company yet, just find some way to get in there without anyone noticing and find out what the hell is going on."

"I gave him a phone, just call him." Tony pulled out his cell and put in a command to call Loki, put Coulson, cursing, hung up the moment it started to dial.

"I don't have time for this, Mr. Stark. If he hasn't been caught and you call him now you're going to jeopardize the mission."

"He says he's working for me. Maybe I want him to come into the office or something." Tony protested, moving to make the call again.

"I'm not letting this entire job rely on your acting abilities." Coulson retorted, turning back to his own speaker. "I'm getting a professional in there as quickly as possible. With any luck they won't be seen, if your friend is in trouble calling him will hardly help matters."

_"That won't be necessary. Though I'm so very glad you're so concerned."_ Loki's voice started up again so suddenly even Tony jumped, though he recovered more quickly than either Pepper or Coulson and snatched up the microphone before the agent could reclaim it.

"You don't sound like a government hostage. That's good." He noticed, sounding much more nonchalant than he'd felt. As if his heart wasn't enough trouble on a normal basis, trying to keep Loki safe was going to wear it out before he was forty.

_"I'm still at your disposal, don't worry. Though I must say, S.H.I.E.L.D. could stand to get some better equipment."_

That look on Coulson's face never got any less satisfying, though he was apparently becoming worse at hiding his reaction to it because Pepper's heel suddenly found its way against the top of his foot, and Tony gave a quiet curse. "That was mean." He mouthed silently, holding the microphone away as Coulson came to take it and only earning a roll of the eyes from Pepper.

"I need to teach you how to text so we can avoid these problems."

_"How to what?"_

"Where are you, Mr. Laufeyson?" Coulson demanded, speaking more loudly than normal so the microphone- which Tony was constantly avoiding his reach with- would catch the sound.

_"Waiting for our mutual friend and confusing an intern who seems to believe me schizophrenic. Don't worry, she can't hear me and doesn't seem the type to read lips."_

Coulson let out a breath, apparently relaxed, and brusquely held out his hand. Tony reluctantly held over the speaker-piece, and he held it up to reply. "We're not done with this, Mr. Laufeyson."

_"Oh I'm sure you'll find time to lecture me elsewhere."_ Loki replied calmly, the sound of a chair scraping on tile following the words. _"Now if you'll excuse me, I have a date."_

Pepper allowed herself a small smile at the joke, but Tony could only do his best to suppress a frown. That wasn't the terminology he'd of liked to hear.

Loki gave the wire a quick adjustment, opening his jacket to prevent the sound from muffling, hissing for silence on the other end, and risked bringing the top of the receiver just over the edge of his shirt, mostly hidden by the scarf he'd "worn" for that purpose. Illusionary clothing, oddly enough, seemed to be perfectly capable of halting the progress of sound. He wanted to make sure they heard this next exchange.

Hammer had wasted very little time before calling him back, hardly long enough to resolve the supposed crisis with the microphone. Loki hadn't expected otherwise, smirking at the confusion on the employee's face when he was sent to call him up, no doubt with an over-excited order to hurry from his flustered higher-up. So he followed, taking as much time as he desired and ignoring the desperate anxiety of his temporary escort.

When he finally did allow himself to be brought back to the office, Loki found Hammer in a state of absolute nervousness, running a hand through his hair and pacing back and forth, one hand in his pocket as he muttered under his breath anxiously. Seeming to think nothing of this state the other employee said a quick goodbye and made his way down the hall, leaving the god of mischief to watch in amusement as the other man failed to notice his presence.

When he did Hammer gave a literal jump, hand flying from his hair and very briefly to his chest. "Oh jee- Hey, hey there Luke." He stammered, both hands on the desk to hold himself up for a moment. "You uh, you startled me there."

Well, that was certainly interesting. Loki smirked and took the same seat he had before, completely nonchalant despite the ever-present pain. He'd become better at ignoring it, at least, though his body was far from normal functioning. "Well?"

"Well…?" For a moment Hammer seemed truthfully not to understand him, then realization hit him with an over-agreeable nod. "Oh, oh the job? Well, that was all just a precaution really. Between you and me, I would have hired you the moment you walked through that door if I could."

"That's probably the first time you've told me the truth all day. How nice." Loki grinned at the baffled look on the other's face, but gave him no time to respond. "Whatever you want me to sign or fill out give to me now. You can call me whenever I can assist you with something but I'll be keeping my job with Stark, of course. Otherwise I could hardly bring you what you need."

"Yeah. Yeah we can do that." Hammer promised, nodding again, stuffing his hands in his pockets and attempting to meet Loki's eye. When he did he gave a reaction far more satisfying then Stark's or Coulson's. The man turned stark white, swallowed, and sat down, bighting his lip.

"So um… Just… fill that out and leave it with the secretary at the desk. We'll call you when we need you." He assured nervously, scooting forward a short form then immediately drawing his hand back.

Loki picked up the paper, smirking when he imagined Coulson listening in on the conversation. "Don't call in the evenings." He warned calmly, standing to exit with a slight nod, never looking away.

* * *

><p>"Congratulations on your… success." Coulson's smile was strained, but there was at least something genuine in his happiness. They now had a firm link to Hammer, after all.<p>

"You find out any dirty little secrets while you were there?" Stark was lying on the couch, fiddling absently with the computer screen he'd pulled up on the wall. Impressive technology, but not all too surprising considering J.A.R.V.I.S. was a full-house project. "He keep severed fingers in his drawer?"

"Only three." Loki lied pleasantly, earning a startled look from both Coulson and Pepper. "But he seems to be about as happy about his release as you are. His employer terrifies him. Shame I had no camera." The cat had sprinted into the room almost as soon as he arrived, almost sensing its master, so he bent down now to lift it up and smile as it meowed appreciatively.

"What makes you so sure about that?" The S.H.I.E.L.D. agent demanded.

"Any number of things, which I'm certain you've picked up on through the conversation. Other than all the verbal clues and the fact that he bothered to call them to confirm appointing me at all… he seemed to be losing his mind. Literally." Loki added, familiar with the hyperboles on earth. "There was a notable difference the second time I spoke to him."

Though he'd of expected this information to amuse Stark, the man was frowning slightly and sat up so suddenly his sunglasses almost slipped off. "Hammer's going crazy?"

"Minutely."

"Great idea to stick you in there with him alone then. This is only the guy who let Ivan Vanko loose on the city." He cast an accusatory glance at Coulson, who didn't even merit meeting his gaze, and looked towards Pepper for support. "Can we agree not to let Loki off running around with supervillains anymore?"

"He's better at it than you are. Did anybody try to shoot you today?" The red haired woman asked with mock curiosity, smirking at her boss' annoyance.

Loki pretended to consider the question, frowning slightly. "Possibly, but he might have been trying to sell me something. One can never tell with you Midgardians."

Oddly enough, Stark didn't seem to find that funny. He was still frowning, no room for the wise cracks or sarcastic retorts his conversations were usually filled with. Coulson cleared his throat loudly, and when Loki turned to him gave him an expectant look. "I'll need to hear the rest of your report, Laufeyson."

A quick glance at Stark, who couldn't hide his dislike for this suggestion, and he shook his head. "I'm tired and I've done what you required of me. I'll discuss with Pepper and Tony, but not you."

Coulson's lip twitched again, but he didn't protest. "I expect a report the next time I drop by." He warned, gathering his microphone in one hand and his phone in the other than shoving both into his pocket and extending a hand. "Pleasure working with you."

Loki was tempted to refuse the gesture, but shook the man's hand after a moment's consideration, the kitten meowing angrily at having its perched reduced to just one hand.

Coulson said a curt goodbye to Stark and a brief one to Pepper before exiting the room, apparently familiar with where he would find the door. Once he was gone Loki crossed the floor to sit beside Stark, letting out a relieved breath. As much fun as he'd had there was a bit of an exhaustion factor to dealing with politics.

Pepper joined them immediately, and Loki realized that both were watching him as if they expected him to fall over at any second. "I'm fine. I didn't cast anything today, that's what exhausts me." He assured.

"Fine, but if you fall over again I'm just gonna leave you on the ground." Stark said.

A slight smirk. "I'll keep that in mind. Oh, before I forget, here."

As if from nowhere he snatched up a thick manila file, stuffed to the brim with records and images and labeled with the block letters of none other than "Tony Stark". The man in question took it curiously, glancing over the front and back but finding nothing more than Lernaea's logo on the bottom.

"Why does Lernaea have a file on you?" Pepper demanded, reaching out to snatch the envelope and prying it open for a better look. "Even if Hammer's working there- there's too much here to be all about business."

"Maybe they're secret admirers."

"Or more likely their owner's had his eye on you for a long time." Loki suggested, pulling out one of the documents and eyeing it curiously. "He even has your hospital records. Or at least a page of them."

"Yeah, there's way more than that." Tony assured, glancing over his shoulder to read them and ignoring the angry feline hissing and attempting to claw at his arm, pouncing off Loki's lap to no avail. "2008. When did I have surgery in 2008?"

"You crashed the car into a tree." Pepper replied in a bored tone, setting aside a few photos for future reference.

"Ah. Right." Stark shrugged and glanced away from the sheet with an expression that didn't match the amusement in his voice. "When'd you have the time to grab this?"

"When I was talking to the receptionist." Loki lied casually, slipping the paper back where it belonged. "We should go over all this."

"That could take all night." Pepper warned. "Want me to go pick up dinner?"

Of course, the girl'd been working for Stark far too long to expect a sleepless night would be any sort of deterrent. The man nodded distractedly, gathering together the documents his assistant had already sifted through and storing them back in the envelope. "Yeah, uh… pizza. And Rock Star. Not the blue kind. Hey, won't they notice this went missing?"

"I replaced it with an image, they won't notice."

"And if one of them goes to get it?"

"They will suddenly find themselves remembering something far more important they should be doing."

Stark nodded his approval, looking to Pepper without bothering to hide his impression. "This guy's scary good. I'm a little concerned about everything lying around the house now."

Loki merely smirked and stood up after setting the cat- no doubt banned from the garage- down after calling it over with a soft click of the tongue, ignoring the protest from every wound and bruise and break in his body. "Let's get started." He insisted, taking the folder away from Stark in one sharp movement and walking toward the workshop . They had a long night ahead of them, after all.

**A/N: Aaaand there you go. Hammer's finally shown up, and I've been wanting to write for that sleazy asshole for way too long. Those of you who are familiar with greek mythology might understand the company's name, those of you who aren't will either figure it out in a few chapters or google it and spoil away. But hey, either works, and I apologize to the people who've figured it out already because of the name.**

**As always reviews are highly appreciated- I try to reply to each of them, too, so if you've got an account please log in! **


	10. Game of Chance

**A/N: Well, haven't had an update this short since chapter two. Sorry bout that. It's kind of a milestone chapter for me (10, woot~) and if I added anything it just didn't feel right, but hopefully you'll enjoy it all the same.**

**I'm going to Anime LA this weekend, so an update might be a bit late. If any of you live in the area, feel free to say hi to the girl dressed as gender-bent Peter Pan! :)**

VVV

Loki had never been inside Tony's workshop before, and though he gave it an approving nod he was far less impressed than Tony had been honestly hoping he would be. No comment on the technology, no notes about the architecture- he didn't even so much as raise his eyebrows, except when he spotted his blue cube off in the corner. He didn't move towards it though, merely sat on the edge of his desk as Tony took the seat and set up some music for their no-doubt lengthy recounting of his invaded personal life.

"There's just about everything in here. Official records, photographs, and a few disks." Loki noted, drawing out the CDs in mention and handing them over for Tony to put on playback. "I can't say how dangerous any of this could be."

"It really is like I've got my own little fan. Cool. Always wanted to be stalked." He pushed aside a few dirty dishes he'd not bothered to clean up and fanned out the stack, doing his best not to bump his hand against Loki's thigh as he did so. Honestly, did he _have_ to sit like that? The way he was turning his body couldn't have been comfortable, could it?

"Well this is interesting. You really got drunk in the suit?" The god wondered, picking up an old newspaper clipping of his most recent birthday party.

"Yes I did. And _that_," Tony snatched the thin paper aside, sifting through the pile in search of the others and gathering them into one handful, "is public information and therefore irrelevant. I want to know what they've got on me that they shouldn't have."

Loki laughed, allowing him to take the clipping without resistance and smiled down on him, clearly enjoying his annoyance. Which, considering Tony was the target, should have looked much less cute than it did. Not exactly a word he was used to associating with deities of any religion, but hell if it didn't fit, terrifying otherworldly powers be damned.

"All right, so we won't look at that. Official records are out as well?"

"Let's see what they've got first." Tony decided, and the two set to work on their little treasure hunt. It took about ten minutes, but at last they had every government-approved, boring as all-hell paperwork divided from the stuff that might actually be a bit of fun to look at.

"You have a criminal record. Good to know." Loki mused, flipping through a small series of papers with only mild interest. "Was there anything more than this?"

"Nope. At least, nothing I was sober enough to remember. Why the hell do they have my SAT scores?" The transcripts- something he hadn't so much as thought about since he was barely a teenager- were freshly printed and even laminated, a perfect score gleaming up at him beside the uncomfortable photograph of his childhood self.

"They don't. They want that." Loki replied after glancing at the paper for only a moment, reaching out to tap the copy of his teenage signature.

"Could've gotten this off anything."

"Not from back then. It's the only unique thing on there, it has to be what they wanted."

"So they want my signature from when I was barely 13? That's just creepy."

"So it is." Loki had picked up the medical records now, leaving behind only the legal documents regarding Stark Industries- and there was no doubt why they wanted those, though the listing agreement for the building was a bit unnecessary. "There's nothing here from before you were fifteen. No shots, no tests, no blood transfusions… This can't be all of it."

Tony wasn't sure whether or not to be surprised by Loki's grasp of medical going-ons on earth, considering how he hadn't even known what chopsticks were. "What've they got then?" He wondered, keeping his voice light though he already knew what the answers would be.

"Just about everything. A cut on the upper leg and heavy amounts of blood loss, the car crash, a gunshot wound to the shoulder, you somehow managed to swallow a teaspoon of kitchen cleaner, alcohol poisoning- over-dose of Nyquil?"

"That stuff's misleadingly dangerous. And contrary to what you would expect, my cold symptoms did not go away at all." Tony replied calmly, earning a raised eyebrow from Loki, who set the files down without reading more.

"And what would all that have in common, I wonder." There wasn't even a hint of a question in his voice, just a knowing look and something in his eyes that said 'I've been there too'.

For some reason Tony felt the need to elaborate, not the common factor in the aforementioned medical emergencies but Lernaea's miscalculation. "The gun thing shouldn't be in there. Some weird guy attacked me after a press conference."

"I'm surprised James didn't arrest him."

"I think he did, some people didn't believe him though. Hence them, ya know, having that." Tony shifted uncomfortably in his seat, reaching for the original stack of files in search of a quick change of subject. "They've got pictures of me buying coffee? That's just creepy."

Loki came over to inspect the photo in question, seeming surprised to realize that there was, in fact, documented evidence that Tony Stark liked whipped cream on his mochas. Further pictures revealed that he also enjoyed wearing suits, bothering shoe-store clerks, and fishing for his sunglasses out of a park fountain with an empty vodka bottle in his free hand.

"I think they just recorded anything they could get of you." Loki laughed, raising the last photo and grinning. "I do believe there's a policeman in the background."

"Yup. Pretty sure this is one of the prison records they've got over there." Tony waved towards the documentation of his drunken exploits, neatly stacked beside his medical ones-many of which corresponded explicitly. "Maybe there's something worth watching on those disks."

Loki nodded in agreement, so he set up each of the three CDs in one of J.A.R.V.I.S.' drives with instructions to play them in succession. The first was merely a recording of his conference over keeping the suit- which Loki seemed to enjoy immensely- and the second was \ just a shot of him blasting through the air above the cameraman, footage following him until he landed, nothing but a speck from all the distance. Judging by the area, that would have been the night he went to investigate the energy storm- seemed a lot longer ago than it was, cliché aside.

But the third held some interest, probably why J.A.R.V.I.S. had run it last. A recording of his fight with the Hammerdrone, from a camera that seemed to be situated in the thing's chest. It didn't do more than confirm that there was some relation between the two events, but Tony told J.A.R.V.I.S. to make a copy of it all the same. He'd been hoping for some clue as to why the thing was in that old fishyard at all, but watching the feed as it zoomed in on his cannons, the reactor, the jets, all gave him a few theories.

Loki didn't seem to approve of the video, eyes narrowed dangerously at the screen every time the Iron Man appeared on screen. "They attacked you?" He demanded at last as the two watched Tony narrowly avoiding a shot.

"Technically a robot attacked me, but it looks like it's theirs, yup." He'd forgotten to tell him that, but it hardly seemed a normal thing to bring up while setting up the plans for a kitchen table or feeding a recently adopted cat. They hadn't really had a normal conversation recently.

Loki narrowed his eyes but made no further comment until the video had ended in the same cloud of flame that had destroyed the robot. Obviously the camera hadn't been recovered- it must've been sending a feed back to Hammer or his boss, but there was no way to track it now. He'd have to be careful not to blow up their next lead; it complicated things just a bit.

"These robots- Hammer didn't build them?" Loki wondered once the playback had ceased and Tony was reaching for more files.

"Hm? Nope, roped a guy named Ivan Vanko into doing it. Russian engineer, really smart, just violent and angry." There was a slight hesitation between the last two words, a brief mental battle to remain as polite as possible. The guy was dead, no use using the more suitable adjectives that came to mind.

"What did Vanko have against you?"

"My dad and his dad didn't get along too well." That was an understatement, but the full story was far from flattering for either of the men. "Causes me trouble from the grave, I think he's haunting me or something."

"Do you really think your father would do that?" Loki wondered, whether amused, mocking, or genuinely curious it was hard to tell from either his tone or his expression. He seemed to be watching for an answer though, so Tony assumed the latter.

"My dad and I… we uh, we never really got along." He said after a moment's hesitation, brushing a bit of hair out of his face and glancing down at his desk, unsure what to say. "He ignored me, and when I did do anything it wasn't enough for him or it would make him mad or…" He shrugged, frowning slightly and glancing briefly toward Loki.

"Anyway, my dad was better with machines then people. Only time he was ever happy with anything I did's when I was set to graduate college at sixteen. I got mad that he suddenly took an interest and uh…" An involuntary glance towards the medical files, a nervous tapping of his finger against the desk. "When he died I didn't cry. I didn't speak at their funeral either. Figured if ghosts exists and he was watching that he'd be pretty mad."

Loki didn't seem appalled by this, unsurprising considering his earlier admission of patricide. "Well, do you miss him?"

Tony had to think that over for a moment, and god dammit he knew he _shouldn't_ have but he was never any better a son than Howard was a father. "I uh… I don't know. There's not much to miss we didn't really talk… It didn't feel any different except for my mom. They both died in a car crash, so…" He shrugged once more, aware that he was avoiding the other man's eye. Certain things he had trouble talking about, and he was doing his best to avoid the babbling Pepper so often accused him of. "Obviously I'd rather he weren't dead, but I don't sit up thinking about it or anything."

When he looked up again Loki tilted his head to the side slightly, examining Tony in a way that made him feel exposed, but not quite self conscious. "You're crying."

"Excuse me?" Tony hadn't shed a tear in years, and couldn't keep the confusion from his voice. There was very little that could shock Tony Stark, but that comment was certainly part of the list.

"Not literally." The god smiled slightly. "I doubt you could. But when you talk about your father you act differently. You even breathe differently, like you're crying."

That was… unusual. He'd never heard a speculation like that before. Yeah he talked differently when he was talking about his dad, it was a pretty uncomfortable subject wasn't it? It was true that he didn't cry in the normal way, but nobody'd ever referred to his change in behavior as a substitution for "crying". He wasn't entirely sure how to respond to that- something Loki should be proud of, leaving him tongue-tied twice in a day wasn't something many people could do.

"Now, your father left you with quite a bit, did he not?" Loki continued, standing with an obvious effort and looking around the room pointedly. "Maybe not all of it was good, though. I suppose I can relate there."

He'd made his way towards that cube of his, holding a hand above the case and vanishing the glass to who-knows-where. Probably the same place he'd been keeping that folder. Tony stayed where he was, curious to watch what the boy would do and, admittedly, a little put off by the cube itself. Damn thing was way too cold.

Loki however didn't seem to think so. He stared at it for a moment then lifted it by the handles on the edge, slowly and carefully, as if it were some fragile, precious thing and not a hefty box immune to everything Tony'd thrown at it. The light it was giving off, blue and soft, seemed to soak into Loki's skin, changing the pale white to an icy blue that snaked its way up his body, leaving the same lines drawn on the jotuns in the old story books.

"This is a… memento, I suppose, of my father. Either of them, really, considering Odin stole it from Jotunheim on the same day he took me." Loki's voice was bitter but tired, and he wouldn't look away from the cube when he turned to show it to Tony, who was finding it hard to look away from the boy's newly red eyes. "I suppose I might have warned you. We call it the ice Casket- it's a weapon, used by the frost giants. So you see we've both been left with weaponry… though mine was a little less willing than yours."

He spoke levelly, but it was clear in his eyes how wary he was of saying this, of showing Tony the Jotun form that weapon brought to the surface. Tony at last stood up to stand in front of him, trying to study the Casket but unable to look away from the surreal colors and lines of Loki's body. This was the way they'd met, the first skin he'd seen him wearing- but he had a feeling the god would not react well to being told that. Go on, ask how it works, ask what he could use it for, ask how he can touch it- do any of the things you'd be doing if it were anyone but _Loki_ holding onto that thing.

"Well, I suppose I should thank you for holding onto it for so long. I do wonder how you managed to bring it down here without freezing yourself to death." The god mused, slicing his hands through the air in opposite directions and causing the box to fold in on itself and vanish, though the blue was slow to leave. "That would have been… unfortunate."

Tony didn't think, but then again he never really did- or maybe he'd made up his mind before the conversation even started- but without a thought of tact, of scaring him off, of Pepper, of the media, or anything really, he leaned forward and kissed Loki.

His lips were cold and sweet, like ice cream, but by the time Tony pulled back-too fast to see if Loki would return the kiss, faster than he ever did with Pepper or any of his 'girlfriends'- they were warm. The heat of Tony's lips had, seemingly, shot the blue and red out of his skin and eyes and left behind creamy white and shock. Normally if he was the one to kiss someone Tony was rough and forward and held it as long as he could breathe for, hanging around to see where that took him. Maybe he was being selfish, but that look of confusion, the way he was blinking slowly as if literally stunned, was too adorable not to let linger for a bit. Besides, Loki wasn't going to give him an answer- if he was still here in the morning that would be response enough, now that he had his weapon back.

So, amused despite the unfamiliar nervousness in his gut, Tony left the workshop and Loki in it, still unmoved.

**A/N:So, this took… way too long to happen, sorry 'bout that. But there, a kiss for your enjoyment. :)**

**On a side note, most of this chapter is just headcannons, so don't start researching Tony's hospital records, because I'm (almost) certain none of those were in the comics or shows or movies. More of this later, maybe, but… I just kind of wrote it, not sure. Like, it appeared on the page without me thinking about it type thing….**

**Reviews are love, as always!:D And I've been hearing a lot about the cat, who just came in as a side-note really. If anybody'd like to suggest a name for him I'd love suggestions.**


	11. Stalemate

**A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter, and to all of you awesome readers for sticking with this story so far!:D Especially because I took way too long to give you that kiss. But hey, I had my reasons, and now you guys get a reward- this chapter's virtually just emotional development and fluff-type stuff. Sorry to those of you waiting for more news on Hammer and Lernaea, I promise you'll get plenty more of that soon.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters presented in this story, except the cat and random nameless shop keepers. **

VVV

Loki didn't say a word when he walked into the kitchen the next morning- far later than he would have liked, he was still so exhausted most of the time- but Stark seemed to know what that meant. He hadn't left, he hadn't been offended or put off by the kiss, he hadn't hidden in the room and tried to pretend nothing had happened.

But _why_?

Loki knew if he wanted to he could warn Stark never to do something like that again and things would easily return to normal between them, or he could remain silent and consent to… what? A relationship? With Tony Stark? There was nothing unusual to him about any sort of so-called romance with a man- gods lived far too long for such specifics to be a bother- but he'd never thought he cared about his host in even the most minor way. Yet to play along with Stark's flirtations could be beneficial- it would certainly help convince Hammer's employer that they had a worthwhile spy, and it would make it easier in practice to search the house.

Emotionally… Loki wanted to say he was disinterested in the prospect, but he couldn't help a slight twitch of the lip that may have been a smile when he remembered the night before.

Pepper seemed to notice this, raising an eyebrow and glancing between the two when Loki entered the room, but merely shrugged it off and continued to tell Stark what his schedule was for the day.

"Cancel all that." Stark suddenly said, not even glancing at her clipboard as he finished up his breakfast.

"What? Tony, this is important!" The girl insisted, pulling aside his plate to distract his attention. "You've had these meetings planned for weeks."

"I know. Just cancel 'em, Loki and I're going shopping."

"We are?"

"Yup. So you can stop dressing like Pepper. We're gonna make you look pretty." Stark decided, giving up on his attempts to snatch back his meal and hopping to his feet.

Loki raised an eyebrow, wondering if now was the best time to tell the man the majority of his outfit was only an illusion, and deciding against it. Weird as the concept was it almost felt like he was being asked out on a… date? In other words, time to decide whether or not he wanted to have anything with Stark.

"Very well." The reply came out before he could help it, before he'd even weighed the options. "I'm not taking _your_ fashion advice, though."

Stark shrugged, the slight lift of his eyebrows and a playful glint in his eyes the only signs of a smile, yet Loki found he preferred that to the "traditional" expression. It reminded him of the way he turned crying into a mannerism, how rather than hiding his emotions he seemed to adapt them into his own, personal, physical movements that nobody quite noticed. It wasn't hard to judge by Stark's reaction that only Loki had ever made the connection before, and the Trickster wondered curiously how that kiss might have played out if not for the realization that advocated both Loki's pride and Stark's blatant humanity.

Why was he even thinking about this? Pepper was giving the two of them odd looks and no wonder when he was sitting there girlishly fretting over his feelings. Oh god. He was actually doing that, wasn't he? That was just ridiculous. He was the acclaimed god of evil and he was sitting in Tony Stark's kitchen for breakfast past noon and thinking about his _feelings._ That just wouldn't do.

"I hope you're aware that I could create anything I want to wear, it's not worth the money." Loki said at last, aware that what he'd assumed was a lengthy silence had only spanned for about five seconds.

"Tony has no greater joy than wasting money." Pepper assured dryly, raising an accusatory eyebrow at the man in question, who merely shrugged innocently.

"It's not a waste of money, it stimulates the economy or something." He retorted, making one last grab for his plate before giving up and going to the fridge. "Plus I can't play dress up with your magic clothes, I want to make you wear weird stuff."

"So long as we agree that whatever I put on you have to try as well." Loki suggested with a pleasant smirk. Pepper smiled, though whether at the comment or the look of disappointment on Stark's face was up to interpretation.

Of course that disappointment didn't last long. "So if I wear a dress you'll do it too?"

"No."

"Cheater."

"I'm allowed to be selective. Besides, I highly doubt it would improve my chances of impressing Hammer's employer if I showed up in a woman's garb."

"So we get you a suit too. Or battle armor- might be more intimidating." He seemed, unfortunately, to be giving this idea serious consideration, and Pepper and Loki shared a look that seemed to be unique to the friends of Tony Stark. "Where can I buy battle armor?"

"You're the only one who owns that stuff, Tony." The red haired girl pointed out, setting the abandoned plate down by the sink for him to clean. "Nobody else needs it."

"I'll make him one then. Loki, wanna join the Iron Man squad? We've got strip dancers."

"He's not joking."

"I think I'll make do without that." How many conversations between the three had ended up like this? It seemed they all did, back and forth banter that rarely occurred in Asgard's war-ready halls.

"Without the strippers or the armor?" Stark wondered.

"Either."

"No fun. Fine, we'll get you normal clothes." He conceded reluctantly, finally selecting what he wanted from the fridge and slamming shut the door.

"Tony, you both have work to do. You can't have a day for shopping when Hammer's found his way out of prison and _you_ have three meetings, one of them organized by Natasha so you know S.H.I.E.L.D. thinks it's important." Pepper lectured, earning no more response than a light-hearted shrug. "And you," She turned on Loki, who stared at her in confusion, "should be working out what you plan to do about Hammer, or at least concentrating on getting better so you can do your job right. Don't encourage him to run around like an idiot."

When had she become comfortable enough with him to act like that? She wasn't even intimidated anymore, judging by that expression. He wasn't annoyed or offended, in fact he rather preferred this change of habit and decided, in one immediate moment, that he would have to tell her about the kiss before the day was up. "I doubt he needs the encouragement, really."

"If you tell him to stay home he will." She pointed out, crossing her arms with a very severe expression. Well. This woman could actually be rather forceful.

"You know I'm still here, right?" Stark complained, and before either Pepper or Loki could respond the still unnamed kitten leapt in one bound off the floor, where he had apparently been walking about, and fell into the man's lap with an insistent meow as if to say 'yes, I know you're here, now pay attention to me'.

For some reason Loki found this extremely funny, and he was laughing before he could remind himself to keep up his composure, at the demanding cat, the expression on Stark's face, and the way Pepper was sighing in a way that resigned herself to a day on the phone with some very annoyed business associates.

* * *

><p>There was no such thing as "press" on Asgard, no ridiculous fools wandering about who felt the need to document even his, a Prince's, actions. Yet Stark seemed to merit an immense amount of uncomfortable attention, with people and reporters following him from the moment they'd stepped out of his car to begin their sure to be ridiculous shopping expedition.<p>

Stark was apparently unbothered by them, but Loki found their presence highly annoying. "Does this happen to you often?" He wondered dryly, unable to restrain a vicious glare for one.

"Yup. Don't worry, they've got way too many pictures of me to care about me going shopping. Unless someone got a picture of us carrying you into the house, then they'll be interested." Stark shrugged, stopping in front of what seemed to be an extremely expensive suit shop. "You like suits? You need a suit, let's check this out."

Loki sighed, shaking his head at the man's energy, and followed him with minor reluctance into the lavishly furnished store. There were plenty of people milling about, and those who worked there seemed familiar with their customer if their eager expressions were any indicator. Knowing Stark he probably spent copious amounts of money every time he walked in, whether or not he ended up making use out of his purchases.

"Not me today, h-" Stark froze, a flirtatious nickname dying on his lips as he glanced almost unnoticeably at Loki, whose only reaction was amusement at this uncharacteristic precaution. "Get this guy measured up and find something to make him look pretty."

"How many times must I tell you that 'pretty' applies to woman?" The young god wondered as the woman hurried off to do as requested.

"You're not a woman?" Stark wondered with mock surprise, frowning slightly.

"We've had more conversation with my shirt off than on, Stark. Though that would explain last night." It was the only mention they'd made of the kiss so far, and the moment passed by without much discomfort when the other man merely shrugged.

"If you keep your hair that long I'm allowed to call you pretty. Unless you're gonna let me call you a stylist to cut it." The man's hopeful tone was amusingly false, and Loki saw that, though he tried to hide it, the man glanced at the length of his hair with a rather approving look.

"If I cut my hair you shave." He retorted after allowing himself a moment of amusement over this. Stark probably would look rather… unusual cleanly shaven, but the goatee had been the one part he disliked about the kiss.

"Yeah, no deal. I like my beard." Stark stepped past Loki to talk minutely with the girl as she re-appeared, then once she had nodded both returned to his side, her holding a thin paper roll with numbers written across in bold print.

She asked him to raise his arms and Loki, whose clothes were either of his own invention or, more commonly, custom made by a personal tailor, obliged without batting an eye. The woman was very careful in taking the measurement, her hands light and the tape always touching his body but never tight around it, and he couldn't help smiling at Stark's new-found paranoia. Really, he hadn't needed to be secretive about asking her to be careful of his injuries.

But he was glad she was, the measuring would have been painful against his perpetually-sore body if not for her caution, and he'd rather a suit be slightly imperfect in the way it fit than deal with any more pain than he'd already been through recently.

Stark wanted him to try on virtually half the store for his own amusement, but Loki put a cap at three outfits per place of business, and he still insisted the other man wear whatever he had to. Of course the suits were much more normal on him, Loki felt an unusual longing for his armor when he glanced at himself in the mirror- certainly formal and by no means bad, but… unprotected, he supposed. He really did tire of Midgardian fashion, but Stark seemed to like the look of a dark green one so he didn't protest when the man wanted to buy it.

"I feel like a dress up doll." Loki complained, tugging at the collar of a very crisp dress shirt as he attempted to free himself from the ensemble.

Stark, who was waiting outside the dressing room with only a slight bit of sarcastic reluctance, seemed to like the idea. "Doll'd let me put it in a dress, you're more like an action figure."

"Do action figures have interchangeable clothing?" It took awhile to undo the buttons on the sleeve, and little wonder when he only had one hand to do either. "I can't see much purpose in that."

Stark didn't reply, but it wasn't hard to imagine the amusement on his face the comment must have brought on. He didn't seem used to anyone "matching" his wit except perhaps Pepper, and Loki too found he enjoyed somebody who could do more than recount battles and loudly demand for more food in a polite conversation.

When he came out in his "regular' outfit- still nothing more than illusionary cloth, though he seemed not to be having much trouble with the real stuff now- Stark was fiddling with something on his phone, looking distracted. Loki came up behind him and, without really thinking about it, leaned against the other's shoulder to read whatever he was doing, unabashedly moving his head within an inch of Stark's to get a better view of the screen. There was a 3D model of a planned project that he was moving about, testing different combinations of parts. His fingers hesitated and released the image of one, glancing at Loki with a touch of surprise. The god couldn't help smirking slightly, had he not expected this sort of comfort with contact after the night before?

"What's so surprising?" Loki wondered with a slight laugh, seeing amusement replace that confusion.

"Didn't think a god'd be so cuddly." Stark noted, taking advantage of the man's presence to give him a quick kiss, which earned him a slight start of surprise that brought a smirk to mirror Loki's earlier one.

The two girl clerks were looking at them and whispering excitedly, so Loki straightened up and made to smooth his unreal clothing, raising an eyebrow and only bringing about a little nervous giggling. Stark stood and re-pocketed his phone calmly, glancing briefly at an extremely ostentatious watch.

"Let's get you something you can wear out in the general public." He decided, pointing towards the giggling girls. "Mail that thing to my house, all right, hon?"

He must have noticed Loki's indifference regarding the near-slip earlier, and a good thing too. The god had always had the impression that Stark was with Pepper despite his flirtations, and the fact that he wasn't flirting the same with Loki… well, it just made the whole situation seem like something the girl would disapprove of. Why exactly he was concerned about that, why he felt she was somehow being cheated, he wasn't quite sure.

What did Stark plan to do about that, incidentally? Loki was unwilling to ask, in case it made him reluctant to continue their… whatever they were doing, so he remained silent on that issue and followed the other man back to the car. Apparently their next destination wasn't within walking distance or, more likely, he was too lazy to make the trip on foot.

"So am I gonna get you to put on a hoodie or is a t-shirt gonna be pushing it?" Stark wondered as he drove, having forgone the option of allowing someone else to cart them around that day. From what Loki could see he preferred to make the trip with just the two of them, judging by the infrequent smiles he cast in the other's direction when he thought he wasn't looking.

Loki had no idea what a hoodie was, but he wasn't particularly eager to wear one judging just by the name. "You'll be lucky even to get me to wear one of those. I don't like having my arms bare."

"Hoodie'd cover your arms." Stark pointed out, waving towards the window where a man was passing in a thick jacket with a hood pulled up, slouching off some imaginary cold.

"That hardly looks like something for my age group." Loki noted seeing nobody who looked to be over thirty on the crowded sidewalks wearing anything of the sort. "Where exactly are we going?"

"Here. I love this place." Stark pulled up in front of a large shopping center, stepping out of the car without bothering to park and waving the keys over his head. A valet arrived to park the vehicle for him, and as he preferred not to be driven off by some stranger Loki go out as well, doing his best to ignore the crowd forming as passer-by caught sight of the engineer and looked on curiously.

The trickster frowned slightly at the cameras they were pulling out and was about to suggest they do nothing to draw their attention when Stark linked their hands together, the other shoved into his jean pocket casually. The movement seemed so natural to him, but Loki felt his arm tense up for a second before he could bring himself to relax it, and when he did he found he rather liked the feel of walking this way. So did the crowd, it seemed, and there was bound to be some dangerous speculation in the newspapers the next day- but was it really speculation if it was more or less true?

"You're doing this on purpose." He accused, leaning down to whisper in the other man's ear as they made it into the building, revealing an uncomfortably crowded atmosphere littered with stores.

"'Course I am. I love confusing the press. Come on, give 'em a wave." Stark suggested, doing so sarcastically in the direction of a teenager's raised phone.

"No."

"Spoilsport. Oh, hey, Buckle- let's check this out."

Still grasping his hand, they veered towards another store so suddenly Loki stumbled, but didn't protest beyond rolling his eyes in amusement.

VVV

Tony had way too much fun taking Loki shopping, because honestly how many people could say they went on a dress-up date with a _god_? How many people got any interaction with a god at all? The fact that he was going out with one was… beyond exceptional, even he could hardly believe that he was _on a date with Loki_. The guy hadn't marched out of his house or mocked him for kissing him, he'd gone along with it and was letting him hold his hand.

That was… kind of weird, actually. Why did he want the guy holding his hand, exactly? He was being… touchy. That didn't happen, it didn't make sense- why should Tony Stark ever be touchy or friendly or _anything_ like that? God, had he ever even held Pepper's hand out on a date?

Then again he'd never taken time on a date to do absolutely nothing but watch Pepper as he was doing with Loki, to smile and wonder what made him so lucky that he was getting the chance to actually _be_ with the guy in front of him. Previous so-called girlfriends and, yes, boyfriends were pretty much an excuse for sex, or making out, or getting a reaction from Pepper to gauge how jealous she might get, but he didn't _want_ to do that here.

And maybe that's why he hadn't really noticed how happy he was around Loki until he'd decided to kiss him the night before. Tony didn't need to do anything to enjoy time with him, it was enough fun just to watch him taking in the eccentricities of mortal shopping centers, laughing at the unusual styles of clothing, rolling his eyes in the mirror whenever he was convinced to try on something absolutely ridiculous. And it was Loki who'd shown himself comfortable with physical contact by leaning on him like that, which meant Tony was free to perform his own minor acts of romance. That light kiss, holding hands, he was half tempted to hug the guy because for some reason… it just seemed _nice_, if it was Loki he'd be doing all that with.

Was he getting sentimental? That was weird. Since when was he anything even _akin_ to that? It was a pretty sudden change too, or at least he was aware of it suddenly. Really he wasn't acting all that different around Loki except for the contact- Tony'd just finally had the sense to ask permission for that contact. "Finally had the sense", otherwise meaning he'd been wanting to for awhile?

Oh whatever. Tony wanted Loki and he had him, who cared why?

By the end of the day he'd only been allowed to buy the guy three or four different outfits, but at least he'd also succeeded in confusing a multitude of people who'd noticed the famous, playboy, _womanizer_, billionaire flirting with some mystery guy who was actually flirting back. Loki had, unfortunately, taken it upon himself to turn one of that crowd's cameras into a rather angry rat that was twice as big as the phone'd been, so Tony had called an end to that portion of the trip and taken them back to a bar in Malibu.

Of course he was regretting that _now_ when half the people knew him and more than half of that number were woman who seemed highly upset that he hadn't given them a call recently. Loki seemed to find these little reunions highly amusing, and had ordered and drained two glasses of scotch before coming to his rescue.

"Tut tut, Tony, don't ignore your date." He scolded, and Tony couldn't resist a slight smirk at the term. Date. Why did that sound so foreign coming from him, as if he weren't quite sure he should be calling whatever they were to each other by that name? By _any_ name? "Ma'am, if you would excuse us?"

The woman seemed so put off by the fact that Tony Stark was on some sort of romantic interlude with a man that she could only nod vaguely and, frowning to herself, rejoin her friends across the bar. "Midgardian woman really are vulgar, aren't they?" Loki wondered, swallowing down yet another refill when it was brought to him, while Tony hadn't even had time to beckon for his first.

He did so now, able only to shrug in response to the question. He wasn't sure what to compare girls on Earth too, but just in general a lot of them were pretty vulgar, yeah, but who was he to talk? "What're they like on Asgard?"

Loki paused to consider this, swishing the drink about and licking his lips to better taste it in a way that was unfairly provocative. "Demure, for the most part, yet none of them is weak. Sif is a powerful fighter and one of my brother's team, so to speak. You've heard of Hel, too, I presume?"

"Goddess of death?"

"Yes. She lives up to her name, of course. But anyway, none of them would dress like that." Loki gestured with an amused smirk to one of the bar's frequent customers, a twenty-something in a shirt that barely covered her silicone breasts and a tight leather skirt that didn't cover much of anything.

"Remind me not to go to Asgard then." Tony taunted, deciding not to mention that she was dressed in a way that would have her kicked out of most places- though they had seen more than a few similar outfits just at the mall. "I like the eye candy."

"Hmph. I can tell." Loki rolled his eyes, clearly more amused than anything, and drained the last of his cup. Tony, slightly put off by this, decided to follow suit and both raised a hand for more. "This city was built on a dessert, those outfits are hardly practical. They'll damage their skin in the sun."

"Coming from the warrior with the perfect complexion." Tony pointed out, marveling in the creamy tone of the boy's skin. Honestly, how hadn't he been covered in scars and burns by now?

Both of their glasses were refilled, and Loki reached for his with a laughing smile. "The sun on Asgard is not so intense. It's beautiful without it, and the weather never gets too hot or cold for our liking."

Okay, so Tony couldn't brag of anything like that on Earth, but… "Least we're not in constant danger of being attacked by giant rabid animals." He took another swig of his drink, smacking his lips appreciatively. This place had _really_ good drinks.

"No, but the fact that you have multiple countries and cultures means you're constantly in danger of being attacked by other humans." Loki downed his own glass in one gulp, and Tony hastened to finish his off as well, which seemed to amuse him. "Your alcohol is also much weaker."

"Gotta try some of yours then." Tony decided as he called for a new drink, saying only to bring something sweet. "And touché. But we also have multiple leaders, checks and balances and all that."

"Which leads to war and dissent. If someone is displeased with Odin they don't battle over it, they merely say what they wish." The god's eyes lit up with mischief at that, and Tony had a feeling he'd stirred up plenty of trouble in that department. "Of course they don't always earn a positive reaction for speaking their mind."

"Another benefit to earth life, most people aren't battle-trained."

"Which makes you stand out all the more?"

"O' course. Well, strictly speaking I'm not battle trained either, I just have a cool suit." Tony shrugged, well aware that he was still better at fighting in the thing than Rhodey, who _was_ battle-trained. "And Earth has Chinese food."

"You do have more food than we do, yes." Loki conceded as he swallowed yet another mouthful of scotch. "Yet it shows on most of you. I think the only person I've seen even half the weight of some of you humans is Volstag, and he eats more in one sitting than most of us do in a day."

"True. Got better transportation, though." Tony was pretty sure you wouldn't find a plane on Asgard, though the alcohol was convincing him that this would be a pretty interesting sight. He should try to build them a plane.

"When compared to those who rely on horses, yes, but some of us can teleport. And you haven't got anything like the bifrost." Loki sipped at his glass again, emptying it and beckoning for another before Tony'd finished even half of his. "You're confined to this realm."

"You haven't got the bifrost either now."

"Unfortunately. I'm sure my _dear_ father will manage to fix it eventually." Loki sneered and chugged the latest refill almost violently, glaring slightly yet without even a hint of drunkenness. "And at that point I'm sure Thor will come down and rush about in search of that girl of his. Assuming he doesn't end up here the moment he's the chance."

"Yeah, you guys like to drink." Tony was beginning to wonder just what would happen if the guy found his liquor cabinet- he was pouring down that stuff like water. "Careful there, don't want you hung-over if Hammer calls you in to work tomorrow."

"It will take much more than this to get me drunk, Stark." Loki assured as he beckoned for the bartender to leave the bottle when he moved, yet again, to refill that glass of his. He seemed intent on chugging the thing down, raising an amused eyebrow when Tony started to make some worried comment about his health.

Well, fine, he could do that too. Loki was doing a pretty good job with that bottle of scotch, so the alcohol in his system told Tony it would be a very good idea to order a bottle of rum. The bartender seemed a little skeptical of doing this but relented- he'd seen how much he could drink, and he seemed to be much more comfortable with fueling Loki considering the god didn't so much have flushed cheeks.

"Careful, Stark. I don't know how to drive, you know." He warned once Tony lowered the bottle for air, a little tipsy but not enough to bother him. Despite his warnings the dark haired deity was already more than halfway through his bottle, and not a bit out of sorts.

"So I won't get drunk, I'll be fine." Well, maybe not, but Tony drove drunk all the time and had never so much as swerved off the road. He figured it would be a better decision _not_ to tell him about that, though. "Stuff's not that strong."

"If you say so." Loki moved back to the bottle, glancing out of the corner of his eye at Tony, who did the same at him. For some reason he decided he _had_ to show him that mortals could drink, and god damn if he wasn't going to chug that thing down before the other man did.

Of course that didn't work, so he called for another bottle for both of them as soon as he'd finished his, shaking his head slightly to clear the buzz. Loki nodded when the bartender shot him a nervous glance, so the guy shrugged and brought them both what was no-doubt turning into a very expensive repertoire of drinks. The two clinked glasses this time and began to chug at the exact same time, Tony tilting his head back a little further than was necessary because he figured, hey, that would make the alcohol pour faster right?

Well, yeah, but it also made him choke on it a bit, so he coughed and pounded at his chest but not until he'd finished the whole thing. Loki's still held some alcohol, seeing as he'd put the thing down to make sure Tony wasn't about to kill himself when the stuff started pouring into his lungs and he kept drinking. Well, he'd won, so ha.

"Beat ya." His voice was slurring slightly, but his triumphant smile said that he was far from caring about that. Loki merely shook his head, looking unsure whether to smirk or roll his eyes.

"Don't try to out-drink me, Stark. I'm a Norse god, this is what we do."

"And I'm Tony Stark, this is what I do. You ever looked at a newspaper?"

He gave a teasing wink which Loki didn't seem to find nearly as funny as he did and called for yet another drink for the two of them, ready to prove his point once and for all. "Okay, ready? One, two, three."

Tony tipped his head back to drink as Loki did the same, meaning not to lean back quite so far but suddenly finding himself tipping back so that before he realized it he was halfway off the stool, and the bottle about to fall before Loki caught both that and the man dropping it.

"Gonna sweep me off my feet now or what?" Tony slurred, grinning at his own wit and laughing as Loki, shaking his head in amusement, helped him stand without falling over.

"How much for all this?" The god wondered with a dry smirk, seeming amused but vaguely concerned by the weight of Tony against his shoulder.

"No no, got a tab here. Right?" The bartender nodded and Tony laughed again, moving to finish the bottle since he'd paid for it but finding it snatched from his grasp with an annoyed look. "Come on, baby, I'm fine."

"Don't call me baby." Loki retorted, turning them both around and dragging him off towards the door. "Really, you _do_ get drunk quick."

"I'm not drunk." Tony protested, grinning and kissing Loki's cheek to the confusion of the other attendees. "I can drive."

"You can barely walk." The other man scolded, smiling with an amused sort of warmth down at him. "I know where you live from here, I don't know how to run a cab so try not to fall over while we walk or I'll leave you there."

"No you won't." And Tony was suddenly very certain that he wouldn't, deciding that why shouldn't he let himself be as physical as he wanted to be and cuddling up with his head against the taller's neck, pleased by the chill of Loki's skin against his own over-heated cheeks.

"Perhaps not, but I certainly should." The god didn't move away from that touch, but he certainly wasn't making his own advances.

Tony laughed because yeah, the guy probably had a point- why was he here with him anyway? A _god_ actually paying mind to the drunken, useless, playboy Tony Stark? Either Loki was an idiot, or Tony was very, very lucky. "I love you~" He declared suddenly, pulling him into a tighter hug and squeezing his eyes shut eagerly as they finally reached the door.

"Of course you do." Loki replied sarcastically, rolling his eyes but not pushing him away even though Tony thought god dammit he _should_, you're too good for me, you _should_.

* * *

><p>VVV<p>

Pepper was taking an agonizing amount of time to open the door, and considering Loki's knees were quite literally shaking with the effort of holding up a now-unconscious Stark this was _not_ all right. The fact that he wasn't just leaving him there and unlocking the door with magic was remarkable in and of itself, yet for some reason he vetoed that idea even before he'd fully formed it as an option. After five minutes of waiting that brought sweat to his brow and gasping to his breath the door finally swung open, and the girl moved forward to help support her boss without a word.

"How far did you have to walk?" She asked nervously as they dragged him inside, the action far too reminiscent of the last time they'd done so with Loki- yet it was once again the trickster God who was weary from injuries. Drunken idiot. "Here, leave him, I'll call Rhodes or something and get him upstairs, you're going to hurt yourself again."

"I'm tired, not crippled." Loki assured, though he could barely manage the words and his vision was swimming with more pain than he could readily withstand. "There's an elevator, anyway."

The girl shook her head in vague disbelief but helped him bring their inebriated friend into the elevator anyway, which began to move upward at a brief command for J.A.R.V.I.S.. The computer really was exceptionally intelligent, even making a snide comment about its creator's state before asking if help should be called in for Loki, whose discomfort was apparently more obvious than he'd have liked.

He shook a head but didn't give any verbal reply, his chest inflamed with the effects of supporting Stark's weight on a three mile walk that would have been exhausting even without the added load. He could easily have used some form of magic to carry himself back, but he could hardly transform into a bird of some sort with the Iron Man leaning against him now could he?

Together he and Pepper managed to drag Tony to his room and onto his bed without either of them collapsing, though Loki was sorely tempted to do so on the spot and only followed the girl outside with a great reluctance. He refused to go any further than the nearest couch- more of a lengthy armchair, but it served its purpose- even when she gave him a look that clearly said she thought he should be getting some sleep in a bed. Well let her think it, he wasn't going to fall asleep again just yet, anyway.

She sat opposite him, and Loki found he was too tired to bother with any form of preamble. "He kissed me. Last night, when I took back the ice Casket."

Pepper seemed slightly taken aback, yet not by the romance itself but… well, probably the simplicity of it- if Loki had expected anything he would have expected an attempt at seduction, certainly nothing so slight as a kiss. "And what did you do?"

"Nothing at first. I was surprised." Loki admitted, which shouldn't have been anything like a shock to her. He took a deep breath, wincing from the effort of it but too determined to finish the conversation for that to matter. "I'm not entirely sure how I should… respond."

Pepper studied his face for a moment, and he saw that she knew he had no intention of asking her permission to be with Tony and didn't expect him to. "Tony… he doesn't kiss people unless he cares about them."

"I find that hard to believe."

"Maybe I put that the wrong way." She shook her head, thinking for a moment and sitting up straighter, looking at her lap then back at him. "If the _only_ thing he does is kiss you then he really cares about you. I've never actually seen him do that with somebody."

"Not even you?" Loki wasn't sure whether to be suspicious of this comment or not- the two were a couple, he'd seen and heard this from both Stark himself and various newspapers left around the house.

"No. I kissed him." She sounded almost as if she was making some sort of confession, and her eyes fell with an almost involuntary… not quite sadness, but regret at the least. "He kissed back, but he probably shouldn't have."

"And why not?"

"Because he's not in love with me. He _thinks_ he is, but he isn't. He wants to be because he needs me to take care of him and isn't sure how he should feel about that. A child doesn't realize the difference between dependence and love and… well, in many ways Tony is still a child." Pepper spoke with a touch of resignation that said she'd been thinking about this for quite some time, probably more than a bit that day. Loki raised an eyebrow and leaned back the rest of the way against the backrest, curious enough to wait out this little speech. "He wants me but he doesn't need me. I want him, too- but I'm not strong enough to be what he needs."

What Stark needed? There could be any number of things that would benefit the man, and Loki found it odd to consider himself as part of this list. "And you think I am?" He wondered at last, hoping to confirm that she, who knew Stark longer and probably better, than he did, believed as much.

"That depends. What do _you_ think of _Tony_?" Pepper, though she'd always shown signs of liking him to some extent, at last couldn't hide the essence of her willingness to hold this discussion. She didn't trust him, thought he was using Stark for nothing more than some twisted means- and was he? There was no chance of a simple answer to all this now, Loki would either gain or lose everything, depending on what the answer really was to her question.

None was given, however, as a pitiful meow drew both their attention to the cat as it bolted into the room, leaped onto Loki's shin and bit furiously at it. The thing was certainly partial to his attention, though he'd rather have preferred it weren't if this meant it would comfortably attempt to tear open his leg instead of making a normal demand for food.

Pepper stood to scoop up the cat, ignoring his yowl of protest and the way it pawed for its master's attention. "I'm going to go buy him some food. Call me if you need anything." She said at last, allowing her reminder to remain nonverbal before leaving with the cat, probably taking it to pick its own meal.

Loki didn't even call out a farewell as she passed, only offering the courtesy of restraining a glare until she'd made her way outside and he could growl with a fury that hurt his chest and his heart. He'd never disliked the girl, never hated her except for in that one fleeting moment and when it passed he had no idea why- only that his injuries had been the only thing to restrain his desire to leap to his feet and _hurt_ her in whatever way possible for everything she had said.

Pepper should feel proud, there weren't many ways to stump the god of mischief. What did he think of Tony Stark? Far too much, whether it be good or bad or neutral- and that's how he should have felt, wasn't it? Neutral. The man was a means to an end, and a mortal at that, certainly nothing he should have been wasting his time thinking over.

Yet the fact that he was said more than enough, and Loki could only manage a mocking smile for himself when he realized no, he couldn't deny that.

**A/N:Ta da~ This is the fluffiest chapter yet. Even the last one had plot exposition, this was just… simple? I felt like writing them up a date, so I threw in a bit of two boys spazzing over their emotions and each feeling very annoyed that they were doing so. Whoops. **

**Oh well. T'was fun to write. Reviews are always welcome! Love to hear what you guys think of the story, and rest assured, there's plenty more to go. This thing's getting to be much longer than I thought it would be. **

**Edit: Okay. So, some of you might have noticed the change in rating. I write a rough draft-very rough- of this beforehand, and... well, I tried to write it T, but that's not going to happen. Putting aside the inevitable swearing and alcohol that's going to follow (already happened in part but nothing M yet) there just didn't seem many ways I was going to get this to work without writing in sex. I tried, but... nope, and I'm pretty sure most of you won't protest. Just keep in mind there _will_ be some of that, and I'll give you a warning before that chapter if you don't like that sort of thing.**

**But yeah, there'll be sex. Not... briefly described, either.  
><strong>


	12. Never Enough

**A/N: (To everyone confused by the rating change, I made a brief explanatory edit at the end of the last chapter, so if you read it before I did go check that out.:))**

**So at a suggestion from a reader the cat has been named- and I find Fenrir wonderfully ironic, considering the origins of that wolf- so hurray~ **

**Disclaimer: Marvel belongs to Stan Lee, Disney, etc. and is in no way involved in nor likely would approve of any of this story.**

The next few days passed without much incident. Loki finished _A Tale_ and allowed himself some rest, reclining to flip through what remained of the file on Stark while the man rushed in and out of the house, always working on something or another but never quite finishing any of his work before abandoning the project. (Well, the same couldn't be said for his meetings, those Pepper forced him to see through to their completion.) The two of them had taken to eating together in the workshop, until the night Loki decided to test a little blood in the water by quite calmly sitting on his lap without so much as a word and continuing his meal, well aware of Stark's confusion that quickly turned to nonchalance. Neither said anything about the position and continued eating as per usual, Loki leaning over to make a few notes on whatever Stark was working on or to insist on a change of music, until J.A.R.V.I.S. informed them that 'Luke' had an incoming call.

"If whoever's on the other end even mentions the word 'father' I'm going to call George Lucas and get him to charge royalties." Stark muttered, probably some reference to Midgardian culture, before nodding. "Pick it up."

"Hello?" Loki couldn't hide the amusement in his voice- had Stark really routed the calls from his cell-phone to the home? He wouldn't be too surprised if he had, the man loved his eccentricities.

"Hey, Luke. How's it going, buddy?" Hammer was just as grating to listen to over the phone, but at least Loki didn't have to come face-to-face with those infuriating expressions of his. "Listen, I was wondering if you could come by the office tonight…? Show me what you've got?"

"I told you not to call in the evenings." Loki smirked, sharing an amused look with Tony before nodding unnecessarily. "I have some designs for you, if that's what you're asking. When?"

"Oh, you do? That's great." There was no longer any point in marveling at the false fluctuations, the poorly played emotions and the incredibly insincerity that seemed to be all the man was capable of. "Oh, any time's good. After closing of course, wouldn't want to draw too much attention."

A laugh, meant to be nonchalant but dripping in nervousness so clear Loki found it easy to imagine the frazzled look he must have been wearing. "I'll be there sometime after ten then. Make sure you're ready." He bent down to steal the bite of food off Stark's fork, earning an annoyed look before the utensil was brandished, guarding what remained of the man's meal.

"Oh yeah, don't worry about it. Whenever's good, I'll be here working all night." Well, that sounded genuine, though the reassuring, friendly tone certainly did not. What were they doing that was so interesting?

Loki had searched the building, not in its entirety but enough that he'd found quite a bit of interest. Of course he'd only allowed himself five minutes of complete freedom to do so, the time period during which that wire Coulson had given him was shut down with an easy bit of magic that he repealed once he'd had his fun. There were only two things of interest for him there, the file on Stark and a wand-not the fairytale kind, but something quite similar to a boomerang- fueled by some odd blue crystal he hadn't had the time to inspect yet. That was waiting in the same space between-dimensions as his casket, safe from anyone save himself; nobody, not even Heimdall, could access it in any way.

So, unless they were planning to mass-produce such an impractical weapon as he had found he could hardly see why Hammer, of all people, would be required to stay late. Not to wait up for him, certainly, there seemed to be more to it than that- but he would find out what that was soon enough. "I'll see you then. I'm at dinner now, if you don't mind, I'll be going." Loki replied at last, pulling his own plate away from Stark as the man attempted a retaliatory theft of his food.

"Great, see you then. Take your time, whatever you've got to show me, is this all Stark's stuff-?"

Stark cut the connection before Loki could do so, apparently showing they shared a disregard for manners when it came to that fool. He would probably flatter himself into thinking "Luke" was already reaching to hang up and hadn't heard the last comment. "If I don't call Coulson and tell him I'm going to Lernaea you won't say anything about it?" He wondered dryly, well aware of the answer as he stood up with some reluctance and set down his plate. If he was going to waste a few hours feeding Hammer what appeared to be useful information he may as well do it sooner rather than later, though of course he'd have to wait oh… twenty minutes before leaving to let the man fret a bit.

"I should, just to see the look on his face again. You've gotta teach me how to frustrate him that much sometime." Stark mused, leaning back in his chair and spinning it to face Loki has he made his way to the door.

The god merely smirked, amused at the comment despite himself. "Maybe some other time. And I'm sure you'll have more fun letting him know he missed his chance than watching him scream into a microphone for a few hours."

"This is true. Not off to meet him already, are ya?" He almost sounded hopeful, as if he wanted Loki to stay a bit longer. Well, he probably did, considering this was the one night he hadn't been distracted by some project or prior engagement in the last few days.

"Not quite. I'm going to prepare something to show him, it has to be tangible if I want him to show this employer of his." Loki sounded almost… apologetic, though he hadn't meant the words to come out that way. But there was something almost _cute_ in that look Stark was giving him, so a little so-called kindness was acceptable, yes?

The man pouted, and seemed on the verge of suggesting they just hand over some actual, pre-made designs before Loki re-crossed the room and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek to abate him, amused by the roughness of what would otherwise be a tender gesture. Maybe he _shouldn't_ shave the goatee, it prevented such actions from feeling soft, anyway. But he _was_ being soft, and he reminded himself that it was for a reason. If the man had been about to offer blueprints just to spend some more time with him it couldn't take too much more… no, he couldn't call this work, but effort, perhaps, to get an actual weapon of some sort.

"I'll try to be back before you're asleep, though that shouldn't be too hard." Loki purred in the other's ear, well aware this would make him sufficiently annoyed for leaving before he did so at last, with a little more reluctance than he would be willing to admit.

VVV

When Loki left Tony let out a dramatic sigh and fell back against his chair, ignoring even the food on his plate until J.A.R.V.I.S. asked if he was "planning to waste the entire night wallowing in sexual frustration or did he not have work to be doing?"

"Not sexual frustration." Tony retorted, though okay, it had been a little annoying to have the guy sitting on his lap. He was making an effort to move things slowly here, and that really wasn't helping. Especially not in that outfit of his, the one that had taken the most arguing and puppy-dog eyeing before Loki would agree to wear it, only for Tony's sake, probably, because he hadn't even bothered to hide a lusty lick of his lips when the god came out wearing an Affliction t-shirt, slightly tight designer jeans and a thin, black leather coat and gloves to match. Yeah, definitely a little annoying. "Call up everything the internet's got to say about that company."

"One moment, sir." J.A.R.V.I.S. began to run the search, which Tony knew would be annoying enough for the computer to handle. Yeah, he'd have to filter about five hundred thousand references to mythology out of the mix, but whatever was left over should be worth a look. "These are all the records available of the Lernaea company, Mr. Stark."

Only two hits, one of which was a news pdf about how they'd hired Hammer, and all it held were a bunch of useless questions that Tony was already working on getting the answer to. Okay, fine, nothing there- but the second was just an advertisement for some product of theirs released for pre-order. Not even anything they could weaponize, just some clean-air junk.

Tony was annoyed, but he hadn't expected much else, really, if the place had kept out of SHIELD's notice for this long. He thought about hacking their email but forget it, whoever was running that place was probably too intelligent to send out anything from a company address. They probably didn't use the internet to do business at all, or J.A.R.V.I.S. would have picked up _something_, at least.

God, this was boring. Wasn't uncovering some government scandal supposed to be the most entertaining part about working with top-secret organizations? So yeah, he was just a consultant and not really the one out on field missions, but if that were the case why had he been getting shot at and kept in the dark recently? That seemed like the situation for a hired gun or something, not the guy who was meant to work in the information department.

Well, whatever. If they were going to hide stuff from him he'd have his own fun. "Anybody on base right now?"

Tony watched the screen -floating seemingly in the middle of nowhere, he'd pulled it away from the main computer so he could stand and get a bit more room to look- as it traced whatever phones were sending signals out of known SHIELD bases. Not that they knew where those all were, but definitely more than Fury thought he did. J.A.R.V.I.S. caught multiple signals, and those transmitted from a land line vanished from the screen at a curt command from Tony.

"Recognize any of those?" He wondered, and a moment later those that were unfamiliar followed the land lines, leaving Tony with three numbers to choose from. One was Fury's, so he threw that aside- literally, dragged the image and threw it into a 3D recycling bin that formed just for that purpose not far off. That left him with either Natasha or Coulson, and they were really the only people he knew anyway. Weird that all three of them were on some base or another, they were probably up to something about Lernaea, just like he was.

He tapped the number twice to let J.A.R.V.I.S. know that he should be calling it, then zoomed in on the area Natasha's signal was coming from. Or had been, he could track calls up with a good hour or two leeway, he'd gotten tired of needing whoever he was tracking to be making a call and had spent a few days working on a better method. A pretty big facility, Tony was pretty sure that was the same spot he'd gone for his so-called "assessment" from Fury that had resulted in being told he was more useful to them as a consultant than a gun.

"Mr. Stark?" Natasha sounded surprised, he hadn't called her since he still thought her name was Natalie, and even then only once or twice. He didn't like making phone calls.

"Hey Natasha. How's the eye doing?" Okay, maybe that wasn't _really_ necessary, but Tony was a bit curious to see how she was taking that little accident.

Not too well, apparently, because her voice suddenly became icy. "What do you want, Mr. Stark?"

"If I send you a few docs will you check 'em out? Stuff Loki'n I've picked up about Lernaea."

"Just read me the information over the phone and someone will collect it later."

"You see, I'd do that, but I'm not too confident in my phone lines right now." Tony retorted with a very pointed touch of sarcasm. Yeah, he was still mad about that. "Gimme your email."

Natasha sighed, but seemed to think it was more important to know whatever he had for them than to harbor her dislike. ". Why aren't you sending this to Fury?"

"He's not as pretty." Tony replied vaguely, already calling up his email and sliding in the copies he'd made of those discs as attachments. Throw in the video file of his fight with the robot, a rundown of what was in that folder, and it was enough for them to think about for awhile. "Send me a reply when you get it."

"Fine. Goodbye." Natasha hung up bitterly, and Tony couldn't help being a little annoyed despite how he'd been about to do that himself.

He hit send, and was about to start on his next part of the plan when the echo of a door bell interrupted him. That was weird. Pepper was off doing some… work thing or another, and Loki'd mastered the art of calling for a Taxi sometime over the last few days. They both had keys, and so did Rhodey, so this was either business or something urgent. No call from SHIELD, and he'd just seen they were all on-location, so curiosity got the better of him and he moved for the elevator to see what was up as quickly as possible.

"Track everything that's gone through that IP address when Natasha replies. Undo every fire wall they've got, I don't care if it's just hiding photos of a family reunion, get me everything." Tony demanded, waiting for a "yes, sir" from J.A.R.V.I.S. to click the button and be on his way.

If he'd been expecting anything, it certainly wasn't to find Jane Foster standing on his door step, wringing her hands and looking nervous but determined in a way that he didn't really like. "Mr. Stark, you're home!" She sounded more relieved by this than any college-age girl should… and wait a second how the hell had she gotten all the way to California?

"You got a private jet I don't know about?" Because Tony really couldn't see her affording any spontaneous trips, unless she'd managed to convince Fury this was for business and have SHIELD foot the bill. "How'd you get past my gate?"

"The computer let me in." God dammit, J.A.R.V.I.S.. "I was wondering if I could talk to you."

"I'm not kicking him out, so let's get that down on the table before we even start." Tony warned, and she only nodded so he frowned and continued. "Come on, let's go get coffee or something. I have a feeling I'll get arrested if I bring little girls into my house, at least I can pretend you're my illegitimate daughter or something in public."

"You know, I'm an _adult_." She retorted, but thinking about it for a moment seemed to tell Jane it would be a bad idea if anybody saw her vanishing inside the Stark mansion for any length of time. "Fine. Dad, uncle, weird mentor with a robot obsession, whatever you are- get in my truck, I'll drive."

"A truck." Oh, wow. She'd _driven_ there from New Mexico? Girl was determined, or there was something going on in California nobody was telling him about. "Yeah, that's not happening. My car, I'm driving, and maybe I'll let you pick the place. Come on."

Tony kept his keys with him most of the time- to all but his favorite cars, those were usually in the workshop anyway, so he shut the door and called for it to be locked without a backwards glance. He was already heading down the walkway when Jane hurried to join him, but hey, she'd get used to his spontaneity eventually. Or she'd be scared away and he wouldn't have to deal with her speeches, that was just as possible.

It was the middle of August and Jane was bundled up in a coat, but she didn't look even the least bit uncomfortable with California's idea of reasonable weather. He'd've been walking around topless if he had the choice, he got enough unwanted attention just for the "wife beaters" he liked to wear. Even so he was half tempted to turn on the heat once they got to the car because really, what the hell was she wearing? But he cranked up the AC and the music as high as either would go, left the top down, and drove off the moment she'd gotten buckled up.

God, she looked young. He felt like a pedophile just driving around with her, and was he actually staying within ten miles of the speed limit? Pepper would be stunned, but what else was he supposed to do? He didn't want to put up with any more lectures than he had to, and he could already tell he was going to have at least one of those to deal with before Jane let him be. At least the girl was smart, he couldn't pass up the chance to talk astrophysics with an expert that even Erik'd appraised, even if that meant he had to listen to a little complaining first. Reasonable complaining, but whatever.

Okay, he had no idea what you could find around this place- he didn't travel Malibu very often. Weird, considering he lived there, but it was more fun going somewhere far off. "That place look like it sells coffee?" He wondered, glancing at Jane, who shook her head with an amused smile and shrugged.

"They sell something." She assured and eh, good enough for him, so he pulled up the car and ignored the stunned look of a passing police officer. Was his car too flamboyant for _Malibu_? Cool.

On the inside the café was… well, a café for one thing, and that was what mattered the most, but the lavish decoration and extremely well-dressed staff were another bonus. Jane swallowed anxiously and seemed on the verge of suggesting they go somewhere a little more modest, but he was already walking past the counter in search of a seat he'd like. She apologized briefly to the hostess when she called out for him to wait and followed. There weren't many people there- place was probably about to close- but those present seemed to disapprove of Tony's attire. He was tempted to sit directly next to one of them just because of this, but considering what topic they were bound to fall onto he slid into a booth far from either people or windows instead.

"All right, get on with it. What new reasons have you come up with for why I shouldn't let Loki stay in my house?" Tony asked the moment they were both situated.

"I know you're not going to listen to me about that. That's not why I'm here, but don't think I'm letting it go." Jane warned, and he only shrugged. If he could delay that topic continuously then he would, yeah. "S.H.I.E.L.D. gave us a new assignment. They want us to use that cube to bring Thor back down."

Oh, that was most definitely not good. Tony tried to feign nonchalance, but he had a sudden urge to whip out his phone and ask Fury what the hell he thought he was doing. "Cool. Not exactly drag-out-to-a-coffee-shop-looking-morbid cool, but cool. Any reason you're telling me this?"

Jane gave him an annoyed look that said she clearly didn't believe a single word of that incoherent babble. "You should tell Loki. If we succeed I don't want those two going at each other's throats and destroying a city before I can talk to Thor."

"Pretty sure they'd destroy more than a city."

"Probably, but that's not the point. Will you tell him or do I have to do it?"

For a moment Tony was tempted to say no, you can do it, I'll be a coward and stay out of it. But Loki would probably try to hurt her in earnest this time, and anyway it was his job to do it, right? "Yeah. I'll tell 'im."

"Thank you." And she seemed to mean it too, a tension he hadn't noticed vanishing form the way she held herself, and she smiled genuinely for the first time. Definitely better than pouting. A waiter offered them both menus and she took one, Tony waving for his own to be put on the table. He didn't like people handing him stuff. "So you're really letting him stay."

"Not really. Don't think he needs permission, guy'll do whatever he wants no matter what I say." Huh, white chocolate raspberry mocha. That sounded absolutely awful, he'd have to give it a try. "Can't see why I would kick him out."

"I'm assuming you're not going to listen when I list the reasons again?"

"Not at all. Hey, I'll take that fruity chocolate abomination thing. And food. Whatever it is, bring me some food. No sweets." The waiter nodded and took the menu, looking baffled because he had been on the way to another table but didn't dare tell this to Tony Stark, and glanced at Jane expectantly.

"Um, the same. Just the drink, thanks." She answered, probably just to avoid any more awkwardness, and handed her menu off.

Apparently they looked like they were discussing something really interesting, because the waiter glanced between them almost as if he was expecting them to pick up conversation again, but moved along nervously when Tony gave him a warning look. "If Thor comes down I can't guarantee Loki'll be happy about it. I can warn him, but if he goes after your boyfriend I'm not helping S.H.I.E.L.D. take him down for it. Whatever happens with Thor's none of their business, and if they don't expect them to start fighting then they're idiots."

Jane pursed her lips, and there was no sign of that trembling little girl he'd seen at the base. Just anger, and a determination to protect Thor no matter what it took for her to do it- and maybe Tony could sympathize with that, but he wasn't going to let anything happen to Loki. It was probably _because_ he could sympathize with her that he was so against her.

"When I first realized Thor wouldn't be coming back…" Jane diverted her eyes here, only for a moment. "Erik got me a big book on Norse mythology to make me feel better. There was this myth, it was absolutely ridiculous, but it cheered me up. This giant stole Thor's hammer, and he didn't know how to get it back, so he asked Loki to figure something out for him. So Loki went to go see the giant, and he said he would only give Mjolnir back if he could marry the goddess Freyja. When Loki told Thor he immediately went and told her she would have to marry the giant, but she became furious enough that-"

"The whole world shook, so the brothers decided to dress up like girls to get the hammer back." Tony concluded, bitter despite himself. "Yeah. I've heard it."

Suddenly he was in no mood to wait around this stupid little café to get some ridiculous drink that would be too sweet anyway. "Call Erik, tell him to come pick you up from my place."

"I can drive-"

"You crashed into the god of thunder twice, once in broad daylight. I'm not filling out the paperwork when you die after ten minutes of California driving at night." Tony decided, not bothering to confirm with her that Erik was even in the state. Clearly S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't think they needed to talk to him about anything.

The waiter returned with their drinks pretty quickly, not like he had a mob or anything to deal with, and Tony told him to forget the food and swallowed what he could of the coffee in one thick gulp. Yeah, the stuff was pretty vile, but Jane seemed intrigued if not pleased by it, and he drummed his fingers impatiently against the desk as she took her sweet time finishing off the cup of it.

As soon as she had Tony was on his feet, tossing down some nondescript bill-never carried anything less than a fifty, it'd definitely be enough- down onto the table."We'll discuss the eccentricities of our various cross-dressing lovers in the car. But first tell me how S.H.I.E.L.D.'s planning to bring Thor back."

And whatever else it takes to find out how those brothers had gone from what they were to what they are- even if Tony could only think it, beg it, not ask it.

* * *

><p>VVV<p>

It was far too easy to fool and please Hammer, even when all Loki had given him were half-complete sketches that _could_ lead to some invention or another, but nothing that would be any more dangerous in a mortal's hands than a screwdriver. Even if they were intelligent enough to finish them they would never power them with Midgardian technology.

Did Hammer understand this, or was there something genuine in that idiotic joy? Certainly there was at first glance, and Loki answered all his questions without more than half a thought to see if he would call him out on the scientific impossibilities he was suggesting. But no, the man only nodded and took a few notes, thanking him or praising him in what he seemed to think was a subtle way. It wasn't hard to see why Stark hated him so much, if it hadn't been for the inevitable payoff of patience Loki would probably have killed or at least maimed him out of simple _annoyance_ by now.

He came very close to doing so whenever they mentioned Stark in conversation, which usually involved Hammer looking away uncomfortably or trailing off in his sentences, clearly expecting more than what he was hearing. Loki was about ready to pin him against the wall and tell him to be out with it already, when he noticed the title of an unopened tag on the engineer's computer. He'd half forgotten the speculation their little date was bound to have brought about, and allowed himself the fun of seeing just how much hinting it would take to make his employer as unbearably uncomfortable as possible.

Eventually Hammer had just changed the topic by no subtle means whenever Stark was so much as mentioned, and refused to meet Loki's eye the rest of the night. Well, that was always a bonus.

At least he was free now, and it had only taken him two hours of enduring immense idiocy to secure what he'd wanted out of the night. That hadn't been too hard to worm out of the fool of an engineer, though he probably had no idea just how much he'd said.

All it took was a simple question, asking calmly who else was forced to remain overnight. "What? Oh, security, a few other engineers, don't worry about that, Luke, we've got… no, that doesn't matter." In other words, nobody, except perhaps the guard who'd escorted Loki into the building.

"Not even your employer? That hardly seems fair." Not the most subtle approach, but it would play to Hammer's swollen ego, which was almost always accompanied by a sense of indignation for the most menial things.

"What? He's not here. He's never here, why- why would he need to be here?" Hammer was always flustered when he spoke, hesitations to emphasize whatever game he thought he was playing, but there was anxiety and not poor acting behind it now. "I'm here. That's enough."

He'd rushed along, insisting they get back to figuring out what they would need to make "Stark's" blueprints and apparently unable to recognize that there was nothing reminiscent of anything from Stark Industries. Hardly reminiscent of _Earth_, really, Loki'd had fun playing about with Asgardian structure with those sketches.

But Hammer's fear was enough to confirm not only that they were dealing with something far more dangerous than some reckless businessman, and if he wanted to meet the man he would have to stride far off the path S.H.I.E.L.D. had paved for him. Really, they were so _cautious_, if they wanted to figure out who this man was it would be poorly done through sitting about and hoping to impress him. Loki would have to plan some way to lure him into his presence, yet everything that came to mind would mean using Stark as that bait, or at least his home. And Loki wasn't quite sure if he was willing to do that.

The taxi he'd hailed pulled in front of Stark's mansion, staring up at the huge gate and pathway with such a look of amazement that he hardly noticed when Loki tossed a bill into his lap and exited the car. The walkway leading up to the door was longer and steeper than he liked, and his hand twitched towards the cellphone in his pocket but no, magic would be safer than walking. It had been awhile since he'd tried teleporting, anyway.

VVV

"You don't like to sit still, do you?" Jane was wondering, looking around his workshop with absolute awe and somehow finding room to complain about how little time they'd actually ended up spending at that café. True, he tended to drag people around, but whatever, the place had been about to close anyway. "Didn't you say people would think things if I came to your house?"

"Yup. If the press bugs me I'll tell them you're Pepper's long-lost younger sister." He decided, because really he didn't know why he'd insisted they come back to his house on such a sudden notice. It hadn't stopped the conversation, they'd continued their useless arguing which got neither of them anywhere because they were both too stubborn to admit who may have been wrong. And heck, they didn't have much to go off of. Neither of them knew the two gods as well as they thought they did, when it came down to it. "Baby, I'm home."

"Welcome home, Mr. Stark." J.A.R.V.I.S. replied calmly, and Jane's eyes lit up with a childish excitement when she heard it.

"I've heard about this." She recalled, looking around for the source of the voice and rushing up to the main computer, which Tony found a bit annoying. Oh well, she wouldn't be able to access it anyway. "You built him yourself, right? And his AU is entirely self-developing?"

"Unless I feel like changing something manually, yup. He's not going to help you bring your boyfriend down, though. What was it you wanted to look at?" She'd mentioned something in the car, some useless device of his he'd made to keep the press happy that she must have seen in one of those technology magazines. Should've narrowed it down, but he made one of those every other week.

"The cable box." Jane's eagerness quickly shifted gear, and she hurried to join him as he began to walk further down the room in search of that useless commodity. What'd he made it to do? Change channels at a verbal command, or just get them all? Or both? Whatever, he never even glanced at that thing.

But she seemed to be convinced it would help her bring down Thor if they could combine their technology, their research the right way. You'd think that would have something to do with one of those transmitters he'd made for the military, or a satellite or something but nope, she wanted the cable device. Eh, whatever floated her boat and all that. Probably had something to do with how open it was, and if they were sending messages or sucking people down from out in the middle of space then being general would probably help.

So Tony began to dig through one of the many piles he had of stuff that wasn't even fun enough to set up somewhere in the house- which was saying something, considering he'd kept Dummy- while beginning to explain what made it run. And she understood it all, every word without blinking. Not that he was being very complicated, but hey, Tony was used to people looking at him like he was nuts when he started to talk technology.

"I just wish I'd gotten more out of Thor." Jane sighed and stared wistfully at the now-disabled cable… thing. "I mean, what he did tell me was _so_ amazing… I could hardly believe how advanced they are on Asgard, they do the most impossible things and it's all science. But even he didn't really understand how they travel between the realms, though he did tell me a bit about a bifrost. Not much, though, and from what I could tell it's a big device that taps into something that's already floating around between all our universes. A road, maybe, or something close-"

"First step should be finding that road then. This thing might help us tap into it, I'm really good at that, but first thing is to find out what I'm tapping into." Tony cut in, mind already scanning through exactly twelve ways he might be able to do this, and resolving to test them all as soon as possible.

Well, assuming Loki wouldn't be able to tell him, but there was no way he would ask the guy to help bring Thor down. So yeah, twelve ways- and none of them he would reveal to S.H.I.E.L.D., even if he decided to look into this. The only reason he was doing _anything_ for Jane was because he understood how badly she must have wanted Thor back, because if Loki was trapped on Asgard no way in hell would he stay there for long if Tony had any breath in his body to prevent it.

Jane gave him a slightly harassed look, because she clearly knew exactly what was running through his mind and was _desperate_ to hear it. But all right, Tony was a little bit selfish- he wanted Loki too much to be just sympathetic towards her plight. She swallowed and plowed on, making a few informed guesses that were close to a few of his but none of them would really work, and he was debating whether or not it would be any harm to tell her this.

"Oh, that won't work at all." A voice answered for him, preluding Loki's entrance a moment before the god strolled in, calm and collected and most definitely well aware of what they were talking about. Whoops. "If you want to bring Thor down you would need to first send someone to Asgard to find him, and then whatever device you set up would need to work both ways. Very unlikely for a mortal, you're better off hoping he'll find an alternate route of his own accord."

Jane froze with such a tension he could feel it, looking at Loki with wide eyes as if she were unsure whether or not she should take a step or two back. And yeah, considering their last meeting that was pretty reasonable, so Tony sidled between them as casually as he could for the sake of both their comforts, because the god was looking like he was enjoying her fear way too much.

"You could tell us what those are." Jane retorted in a quiet voice, but Loki merely smiled a little cruelly and remained silent. "You're just too afraid to see him again. What, are you going to go attack S.H.I.E.L.D. and destroy all their equipment so they can't bring Thor down?"

"Don't be ridiculous, they'll never manage it. And even if they could I would have done that the last time I was there, it's no surprise to me they want my _dear_ brother back." Loki sneered, though he wasn't looking quite so bitter as he had during that awkward moment back on base. "Hammer was very pleased with your designs, Stark."

"Glad to hear it, his approval's the one thing I needed in the world." Tony wondered if his sarcasm could be tapped as an energy source, they'd probably be able to bring down the thunder god then. "I can now die happily."

"Not any time soon, I hope, we've got to throw a party and I'm no good with guests." Loki seemed positively oblivious to the look they were getting from Jane as she slowly realized wait, all those jokes weren't jokes? "Not only that but I can hardly count on Hammer or his employer attending simply for my company."

A party? Tony was a bit taken aback by the idea of allowing Justin Hammer anywhere _near_ his house, but he could see some logic in that. Some social event, and he threw a ton of parties so there'd be no reason for him to be suspicious. Especially because even if he _was_ suspicious there wasn't a high chance Lernaea's boss was going to pass up on the opportunity to search his house unattended. Or, even better, Loki could easily make that offer when he extended the invitation, some promise to sneak them off for a look in the workshop… And he'd get to throw a party. Not a bad idea all in all.

Jane looked absolutely perplexed, but didn't speak up to comment on the party or Hammer, though she'd definitely heard the name before. "Do you really know any alternate ways to travel between the realms?"

Loki raised an eyebrow, seeming a little put-off by the sudden question. "Yes, of course I do. Goading me isn't going to get me to reveal them, you know."

"I'm not goading you. I'm just wondering how you fell if you could have just come down to Earth with one of those roads."

God dammit, that didn't sound like it would be a happy story. Loki was glaring, and Tony didn't want to have to think of an excuse for keeping the guy out of jail on account of assault, so he pulled him down to distract him with a kiss. "Hey now, work's over. Not talking science now, are you?"

"Coming from the one with the wrench." The god countered, snatching the aforementioned tool away. In all honesty Tony'd forgotten about that, and the cable box still in pieces on the workbench. Eh, he could deal with that later. Or just throw it out. "Has he been boring you too terribly?"

Jane hesitated slightly, forced a nervous smile. "How would you define "terribly"?"

"Hey, no teaming up on me. That's called bullying, you'll hurt my self esteem. Or something like that." Tony protested without an ounce of actual injury, leaning up to snatch back the wrench, more because it felt playful than anything.

Loki eluded him casually, pulling it behind his back and ignoring the annoyed pout that followed. "Well, you're still conscious, so I'm assuming his people skills have improved. Either that or I managed to rescue you in time."

"We were only here for a few minutes." Tony assured as he made a sudden dive for the wrench, finding himself falling for a trap that pulled him into a tight hold from Loki, though as traps went being pinned to a god's body was definitely high up on his preferences.

Well, he could at least turn around so he could breathe, and Tony saw with some amusement that Loki wasn't even glancing at him, merely holding him close by one arm around the waist. Oh. Great. He was the girl in this, wasn't he? "And in that time you decided to see how effective a television cable box would be for traversing between realms."

Jane blushed, whether at the veiled insult or what she was watching was anybody's guess. "It's just the concept. The transmission, tapping radio waves, making it completely public… It would all serve as a starting point, anyway."

The god of mischief merely shrugged, and Tony was a little too happy about how he didn't have to look to know, could feel it because they were so close. Okay, now he wished Jane were gone- no matter how interesting all this was. He'd expected Loki to be cold and distant even if he reacted positively to that kiss, so he would like to milk this cuddly mood for all it was worth, thank you very much.

"The concept isn't so simple." The god said with a slight laugh behind the words. "The bifrost took multiple centuries to create, even assuming I could teach you the concepts required to understand it in less than your lifetime. I doubt there would even be enough energy in this entire realm to sustain the trip."

Last week, even a few days ago, Tony wouldn't have noticed the look in Loki's eyes, the lie that could convince Jane but not him. Because there _was_ something that could power whatever the hell they wanted it to, and how exactly did the god know about it? Whatever, he couldn't ask, couldn't make that sort of risk with this guy. It wouldn't have surprised him if Loki had been reading Fury's mind at base anyway, so no big deal. That wasn't what mattered, it was that he _could_ read all this. Tony wasn't so sure how, considering neither of them so much as mentioned their relationship and Loki just moved it along to fit whatever mood he was in, but apparently something was growing out of all this. Even if that was just understanding he could appreciate it, definitely welcomed it.

Jane didn't notice a thing, and she probably wouldn't have even if she weren't avoiding eye contact with either of them as best she could. Tony almost felt bad for her, and for the sake of his own masculinity would have pulled away if Loki weren't so damn comfortable. "There has to be some way. Is there anybody else on Asgard who knows other ways to Earth?"

"Not to my knowledge." A definite "no", Tony knew enough about Loki that if there were anybody in that realm he _didn't_ know like the back of his hand it would come as a surprise. "And I would doubt if anyone will discover them any time soon."

Jane's face fell, but there was still a determination that said she would do whatever it took to bring Thor down, regardless of Loki's discouraging comments. "Okay… but how do you run it? What sort of energy do you have on Asgard? Thor said magic was just advanced science, if we could use that-"

"But you couldn't." Loki was looking a little too amused by this, and he released Tony calmly and stepped forward to appraise Jane, who didn't flinch. He performed that crossing movement, one hand sliding in the opposite of the other, palms facing, and when his hands moved to the sides that cube- ice casket, right? Something like that- was in his hands.

Jane's hatred seemed to have vanished into awe, and she reached out curiously to touch the seemingly harmless cube. Tony grabbed hold of her wrist, unsure whether or not Loki would bother to pull the thing back and stop her from getting frostbite, and shook his head in warning. "Look, don't touch. Thing's cold as all hell."

"Wouldn't Hell be warm?" Loki wondered, setting the thing down almost hurriedly, and Tony glanced almost involuntarily at his hands, curled into fists to hide that blue that was already vanishing, hadn't made it far enough for Jane to notice. "Whatever. This is an example of immortal technology. Ask me any theory questions you like, I will answer truthfully but I won't tell you anything you get other than as a result of an experiment. You have to work that out yourself, I'm simply saving you the time to perform the tests."

"What's the point of this?" Jane wondered, though of course she knew. Tony shrugged sympathetically, girl had no idea what she was getting into.

"If you can come to any reasonable conclusion, discover anything about this with your science then you'll be able to understand something of magic. Ours as well even, I'm sure your imagination can reach further than mortal technology quite allows. Of course, if you don't then you may realize that advanced science is far from a suit that can fly."

Okay, ouch. Tony pouted, though he knew full well Loki's magic was a far cry from his machines, but he still didn't like the implication that his Iron Man suit wasn't very impressive. Jane only pursed her lips, resolute, and began to take the god's challenge.

For over an hour she worked through any number of situations and tests, all of which Tony had tried and none of which earned her more than an amused smirk and dry response from Loki. If she did suggest something Tony hadn't tried, usually for fear of destroying the machine, such as cutting through it to reach the core, the trickster would reply that was she planning on killing herself because that would certainly never work.

Then J.A.R.V.I.S. interrupted this little game, informing them that Erik was here to collect his sufficiently baffled daughter-figure. "Come on, you're not getting anywhere with this." Tony cut in, because Jane was looking determined and frustrated enough to continue all night.

She sighed, accepting that Loki was probably right in at least this test, and stood to follow him to the door as the ice coffin vanished to wherever it was the god stored these things. "Thank you for listening to me, Mr. Stark. And, uh, you too, Loki."

The god gave a disinterested shrug, but there seemed to be no ill intent between them and hey, Tony's workshop hadn't been destroyed so that probably said something good about the night. Loki stayed behind as Tony lead Jane to the door, where she froze and turned before he could open it and allow Erik an explanation for the evening.

"Thank you, really, Mr. Stark." She smiled slightly and he returned the favor with a touch of genuine emotion implied by the gesture. "And… I can see why you love him, but I still can't trust Loki."

"Love him?" Tony wasn't sure how to feel about that because what? He'd only been with the guy for a few days, not even a week, and… yeah. She had a point, because he'd felt something like love for the guy since the moment he'd seen him stand through an immense amount of pain, first seen him in full and been able to do nothing but promise him dinner, of all things. He wasn't _in love_, but… god, he really loved him. He _loved_ Loki, and the realization made him want to grin and pass out all at once. Jeez, that felt rushed, only a month in the guy's company? No, maybe a week more than that, or something, but whatever.

"Think you might wanna check your sources again." Tony said at last, and Jane's smile told him she understood. _Two days in Thor's company_, the look said, _and look what I'll do for him. They're really too much for us, aren't they?_

And Tony couldn't do anything but agree.

* * *

><p>VVV<p>

"Hey, Pepper, need you to send out invites for a party." Stark was saying into a cell phone, the main speakers for the house occupied by some movie J.A.R.V.I.S. had suggested. At Loki's insistence they'd played it, though neither was paying much attention to the screen. "A masquerade, probably. Dunno, you pick the theme. No, it's gotta have the masks, don't want this boss of Loki's freaking out about showing his face or somethin'. No, no. Definitely don't invite Hammer, let Loki handle that. Don't want the guy thinking I like him."

Loki chuckled and Stark stuck his tongue out at him in annoyance, which only earned him a hampering kiss in return. No, the god wasn't making this conversation any easier to hold, arms already wrapped around the other's waist as they reclined together on that couch again, fully conscious now and no longer worried about what this meant. Because they both knew by now, and the god had no inhibitions hugging Stark to him, head pressed against his hair and… cuddling him, for lack of a better description. The newly-named cat (Fenrir, Stark seemed to think he was being funny) had even joined in, circled up on the very edge of the couch and eyeing them warily, as if wondering why his master was _relaxing_ with the bearded man it disliked so much.

Loki paid it no mind- he didn't want to move. This was… comfortable, and odd, and warm and he wasn't going to break away from what he knew Stark was desperate for out of this. He needed the attention, the contact, and the simplistic affection of what the god was doing here, and Loki was happy to oblige both for his own sake and out of an odd touch of guilt. In the end it had been a party he'd decided on, and this would involve Stark in ways that could be dangerous, ways far more immersive than asking him to lend his house for the event.

"Gotta get costumes for a royal ball, apparently." The engineer shrugged, giving Loki an appraising look. "Any chance of getting you to be the princess?"

"Only if you'll rescue me from a dragon." Loki replied calmly, knowing this preluded another day of shopping. At least for something interesting, in this case, as opposed to a mere excuse for a date.

Stark merely raised an eyebrow suggestively then returned to his conversation with Pepper, saying yeah they could get their stuff by that Saturday. Only four days away, then, which meant things were about to get interesting, because once SHIELD knew what it was up against they would think of a way to fight it, and both of them would be recruited for that.

So he would hold him here, just like this, and do nothing but smile, press his forehead against that messy brown hair and simply listen to his voice, allowing them both a moment of peace.

**A/N: Yup, of course I couldn't resist throwing in some fluff, hopefully it was in character… I like fluff, okay? Anyway, next chapter's a masquerade, because I love masquerades and if Tony's throwing a party that's the party I'm going to have him throw. Also, finally the boss will be revealed, though I'm sure some of you have guessed who that is by now.**

**Thanks to all of you for keeping up with this story for this long! I love each and every one of you in the least creepy way possible, and I continue to spaz over every review, favorite, whatever. You guys just make this so much fun. (Also, excuse the cheesiness and general lack of logical thought, I'm watching highly emotional television and feeling very upset on the behalf of imaginary soldiers.)**


	13. Unmasked

**A/N: Well, this took a bit longer than expected, sorry about that. Family issues, school, all the usual yadayada. Anyway, here it is at last, the not-so-stunning revelation of Hammer's employer. Also the first character not taken from the Thor or Iron Man films, but this is filed under Avengers for a reason. **

**Disclaimer: Still don't own Marvel, or any of its characters.**

VVV

How Pepper managed to do it, Tony had no idea. But on Saturday evening at six o' clock his party room had been transformed into a renaissance castle, complete with decorative swords, suits of armor, tapestries, more than a few vaguely suspicious foods most of which turned out to be chicken, and a crowd of people Tony was pretty sure he'd only met once or twice, if it all. All of whom were wearing masks, and in some cases entirely unrecognizable because of them.

Tony, dressed in a purple, far from modern suit-at Loki's request, because they'd failed to get him into anything completely age appropriate and anyway most guests were dressed for the 1920s, not the 1800s- barely had a mask on at all. Black and simple, covered only one eye and attached itself via a string, no way he'd be holding the thing up all day like some people were doing. Pepper being one of them, though she managed to look unfairly elegant despite that.

"Where's Loki?" Tony wondered, unable to see much over the crowd and, since her heels put her an inch or three above his head, figured she might be better suited for the job.

She rolled her eyes, no doubt amused by his vague paranoia, and took the cup of champagne he was holding with a challenging look. "He's working. See?"

He followed the wave of her hand and frowned, seeing the god deep in conversation not with Hammer or any mysterious businessman but a couple of girls whose dresses he might have appreciated if they weren't showing off an excess of cleavage to Loki. And being very, _very_ obvious about their flirting. "That's not work. That's, playboy mansion or something."

"That's _you_ on a normal day. Look, those girls came with Hammer, they work for him." Pepper insisted, and Tony narrowed his eyes as he recognized the figure, hidden by some ridiculous clothing and mask that covered both eyes, standing awkwardly just a few feet away. "Jealous?"

"Hmph." Tony snatched a glass of wine off a passing waiter and downed it before she could comment, giving himself time to respond. Before he had to she suddenly stood up straight, looking wary, and he turned around to find a few guests he had definitely _not_ expected to respond.

"Coulson. Fury. Wow, didn't think you were the partying types. Natasha here too?" Tony stood on tip-toe for a sight of the girl, but gave up quickly. Damn crowd.

"Wouldn't miss this for the world." Fury replied calmly, somehow managing not to look like an idiot despite his clothes. "I've got four agents in this room, not counting yourself and Mr. Laufeyson, but none of them's found a thing. Hammer's here, but his boss isn't."

"We're kind of working on that, cut us some slack." Tony retorted, watching and frowning as one of the girls reached out to touch Loki's mask. The thing was beautiful, and far as he could tell the god had made it himself- black and blue and white, with something like icicles forming the bottom edge and no holes for the eyes. Just pure black, running paint that almost looked like tears. How Loki was able to see anything was anybody's guess, but he was handling himself just fine. "Party started like twenty minutes ago, I'm not even drunk yet."

"And you won't be." Coulson, now, snatching away the wine before Tony could down it to prove his point. "You should've told us you were planning this, Stark."

"He wasn't. I did. Are we not allowed to hold a party in our own home?" Pepper wondered, and Tony would have been more appreciative of her defensive tone if that girl in the blue gown wasn't purring something into Loki's ear that made her friends giggle.

"This isn't just a party, or Hammer wouldn't be here." Fury pointed out, sounding much less frustrated by the situation than his agent was. "How'd Loki convince him to show up?"

"Brought him some designs, said there'd be more here. Wasn't too hard." Really, the only impressive thing about the situation was how desperate Hammer was. His boss must have been one scary guy. And god dammit, now one of them was trying to tip the mask back to get a look at his eyes.

Loki should've been fighting that, just took her hand carefully to push it away and smirked slightly. Coulson cleared his throat, and Tony glanced over at him very briefly, saw Pepper was rolling her eyes and turned away, knowing he was about to hear some lecture or another. And nope, making sure none of those girls tried to touch the god of mischief, that was more important.

"I'm to run over the situation with you." Coulson snapped, clearly disagreeing with this sentiment. "Seeing as you've already run away with things, we'd rather you don't get every one of your guests killed because you anger the wrong person."

"You know what, sounds like a plan. Pepper, take all that down for me." Tony instructed, patting the agent on the shoulder and stepping past him despite his protests. He was vaguely aware of his rather annoyed assistant apologizing for his behavior, probably glaring at his back but not going to stop him, seeing as he'd successfully vanished into the crowd and there was no point stirring something up.

A few people waved hellos or tried to get his attention, but Tony only gave some noncommittal response or ignored them completely, intent on reaching his boyfriend (did he really just use that word? Sounded nice) before he had to sit there and endure a bunch of loosely dressed girls fawning over him for any longer. He approached just in time to hear the end of one's sentence:

"I mean, these dresses are _so_ uncomfortable. I'd love to get out of this thing, but the party's plenty of fun anyway." A brunette in dark green-annoying, for some reason- who seemed at least _vaguely_ more subtle than her friends but really, Tony was tempted to snap at them that they were always welcome to change into something that'd cover them up more because they weren't all that nice to look at anyway, but then Loki glanced up at the sound of his footsteps and his heart skipped at the sight of that smile.

Tony's lips twitched upward slightly- okay, all better.

"Stark." Loki said simply, just his name, but it was enough for Hammer-arguing with someone over the phone and constantly glancing about- to freeze and turn to face them, eyes wide through the mask. "I've been wondering where you went."

"Talking to some mutual friends of ours." Tony replied calmly, a lilt of amusement enough for the god to catch that SHIELD had actually opted to drop by. "New friends?"

"Just some lovely ladies who've been keeping me entertained." The girls giggled, and okay, Tony was jealous, admittedly, but with Hammer five feet away what was he supposed to do about it? "And you've already met Justin."

Oh god. He'd used his first name. Suddenly it took a ridiculous effort not to dissolve into laughter, especially when Hammer realized he was being addressed and gave a nervous laugh, motioning with false apology to the phone. "That I have. Prison didn't do you many favors- didn't drop the soap, did ya?"

Hammer gave an empty laugh. "You're a kidder. That's uh… that's funny. No, not you, of course not." Frantic, now, though at Tony's comment there had been poorly veiled anger. "Just talking to Tony. Yeah, of course he's here- what? No, no I'm not… not scaring him off. We're not even talking, I'm on the phone with you."

Loki grinned, shared a look of amusement with Tony, who only shrugged and snatched up some champagne that should be safe now that he was free from Pepper. "Who're the ladies?"

"They all work for Hammer. Most are with legal, though I believe Kathy runs the reception desk?" The girl nodded eagerly, and said that yes, she did, but hoped to do something more… _challenging_ soon.

Tony frowned, recognizing her voice- the one who'd fawned over Loki the first time he had checked in with Laernea and they'd been listening in. Okay, suddenly he didn't care in the slightest who was here or what might come of this, anything to get these damn girls to leave him alone. He wrapped an arm around Loki's waist, couldn't help smiling when the man offered no resistance, and leaned his head against his shoulder- not quite muscular, but broad and defined, definitely a warrior's body.

"Fun. Tony Stark, entrepreneur and 'Luke's' boyfriend. Good to meet you."

Their reactions couldn't have been more comical. Absolute shock from Katie, or whatever her name was, and a moment of incomprehension before a wide-eyed look from one of the others, as if she'd been hit. Hammer had frozen completely, staring at them with surprise, something like relief, and more than a little discomfort he was not doing too well at hiding.

"I'm sorry- did you say… your boyfriend?" Hammer quickly moved to recover, noting a few warning looks from the girl or two who had recovered and seemed more than happy with this relationship. So maybe they couldn't have him, but at least another _girl_ couldn't, either. "I didn't mean- wow! A steady relationship?" A nervous laugh, and Tony couldn't blame him for once. The look Loki was giving him would have been eerie even without that mask, but even he felt a little apprehensive at it, Hammer or Justin or whatever literally flinched back, covered the phone receiver with one hand. "So you two are…? How long?"

Tony was about to reply, probably with some gross exaggeration just for the fun of it, when a female voice scoffed behind him. "A _boyfriend_? Is that what you call your latest one night stands, Stark?"

The reporter-blond, pretty, rude and whose name escaped him _entirely_- seemed to have been as drawn to that word as the other girls had been, though showed no joy or jealousy over it. This was quickly becoming one of the most awkward moments of his life, and Tony stepped forward to meet her rather than try to uphold his dignity when positioned like he had been. "Well, not all of 'em. You, maybe, but some of them _are_ woman you know."

Whoops, bit too far. Loki was much better at restraining his laughter than Rhodey or Pepper might have been, but the comment brought a nervous chuckle from one of Loki's black-haired fans, and the reporter narrowed her eyes dangerously. Hammer'd taken this distraction to excuse himself, talking in hurried whispers into his phone, and Tony knew that was a conversation he shouldn't be missing just for this girl's latest tabloid.

"Well?" She insisted, looking not at Tony-hey now, that was just mean- but at Loki, oddly impassive despite that mask. Then again, it was the god's eyes that tended to freak people out, and she hadn't seen enough of them yet to let her imagination get away with her just by glancing at that thing. Not like Hammer had, like Tony had.

"Well, considering we haven't had sex yet and I've moved in here, no. I wouldn't say that's the correct definition." Loki replied dryly, upping the volume enough for his would-be peer to catch despite whatever was happening on the phone.

Hammer tensed, if that was possible considering how twitchy the guy was already, but tried to do his best to act like he hadn't heard, and Tony found himself resisting the urge to grin. Okay, he'd just been flirting, but this might actually do them some favors- hearing someone you hired worked for a rival company was one thing. Hearing they were not only dating, and therefore trusted by, that rival but _lived_ with him and had access to whatever was hidden in his house, was another entirely. If that employer wasn't already on his way over he would be soon.

The reporter- Christine, there we go- was at a complete loss for words, something Tony hadn't seen from her before (at least not in a public setting and fully clothed). Who'd invited her, anyway? These parties always got out of hand, Pepper had probably just sent something to every name in J.A.R.V.I.S.' database. "Tony Stark's got someone _moving in_? What happened to Potts?"

"I don't see how that's in any way your business." Loki replied before Tony could, something in his tone making the girl swallow and take a few steps back, his earlier admirers even looking startled by the ice. Okay, that should have been scary, but something about watching Loki handle himself, perfectly calm and collected, was weirdly attractive. "Now if you don't mind? I'd like to enjoy the party."

Christine glared, half-hearted anger and fear shaking her clenched fists, before giving a reluctant nod and turning on her heel to mingle with the masses. The girls were looking anxious, like they were doing their best to think of a way to leave and just couldn't, and Tony was searching for something he could tell them to go do when Hammer solved the problem, approaching with a false laugh as he re-pocketed his phone. God, that was the most grating sound in the universe. It was one of the few things that brought genuine, burning hate in Tony, caused him to clench the glass he was holding and move to chug it just to keep himself from punching the other engineer across the nose.

Loki snatched the cup before he could do so, drained it and handed it back with a teasing smirk. Sheesh, was _anyone_ going to let him have a drink or had they all made it a personal vendetta to ban him from alcohol for the night? Because he was really going to need it, now that Hammer was _talking to them_. "Wow, sure know how to handle the press. That was, uh, that was beautiful."

Tony had to agree, even if he actually meant it whereas Hammer was babbling- typical, and so annoying a recording of his voice should have passed as a "get out of jail free" card for whoever first snapped and went after him with a blunt object. "Somethin' up, Justin?"

The man moved to shove his hand in his pant pockets before realizing the costume had none and only waved a hand nervously, as if trying to say 'oh, it's nothing'. "Oh, just uh… Listen, Tony, I haven't said I'm sorry. For everything that happ-"

"If you apologize again or say "forgive me" or anything like that I'm going to get my suit, drag you into an alley, and break every bone in your body, so keep your mouth shut." Tony cut in casually, every word dripping with sincerity that caused the other man to gulp and look around for help, but there wasn't a friendly face in the crowd. All the more reason to call in that boss of his. "What do you really want?"

"I uh… I was wondering if I could talk to Luke for a minute?" Hammer diverted his gaze to the man in question, sighing in relief when he nodded. "Perfect. I'll only need him for a minute, then you two can… talk or dance, whatever."

"I think you become more awkward every time you open your mouth." Loki noted dryly, dismissing the man with a wave of his hand. "I'll join you in a moment, try not to make any more a fool of yourself until them."

Hammer, with a false laugh and smile to match, started to say something else, but froze when he saw Loki looking at him- in all seriousness threatening him against speech. All right, that was it, Tony'd never been happier with the guy, this was just beautiful. Hammer's lip twitched with barely suppressed anger, he gave a reluctant nod, hesitated briefly as if wanting to speak despite this but seemed to decide against it and turned on his heel with the pretense of going to get another drink.

"He's going to try to convince you to show him and his boss around the house, you know." Tony warned, leaning up to whisper this with the pretense of stealing a quick kiss. "Know the way around?"

"Of course." No surprise, Loki probably had a mental map set up of the entire building by now. "Don't be worried, you'll only bother Pepper. Distract SHIELD, I don't want them in my way."

If Tony was going to protest he was finding it very hard with Loki's breath against his ear, and even harder when he was pulled into a deep kiss, wrapping his arms around the god's waist when he felt the other do the same and completely forgetting where they were until Loki pulled back and revealed that mask again. A few people were whispering nearby, but Tony paid them no attention and merely smirked, intending to say _something_, witty he hoped, but Loki cut him off.

"I'm afraid I can't keep that fool waiting any longer. I'll be sure to introduce you to my boss." He murmured, tracing a hand over Tony's cheek before turning on a heel and following after Hammer, coat tails billowing out.

Of course he had coat tails, the guy never looked quite himself without something _flowing_ about him- hair, clothes, Tony half expected him to pull out a cape one day. He almost raised a hand to touch his skin where Loki's touch lingered, but the very thought made him swear under his breath. Okay, the fact that he'd _allowed_ Loki to touch his face like that was weird enough- definitely more feminine than…. Well. Ever. He wasn't feminine, not at all- not touchy, not romantic, not… Anything he was being now, in public. Right. People were watching, so he'd better stop sitting there staring after his absolutely baffling boyfriend and get on with work.

* * *

><p>Guests arrived on and off for the next hour or so, so Tony had absolutely no idea how SHIELD was planning to know which was Hammer's boss. And yet Natasha hounded him in the middle of a conversation with Rhodey to say they had.<p>

Whatever, Tony knew better than to fret over Fury's intelligence network, so he ignored his friend's protests ("Tony what the hell is going on? Explain, for _once_!") and followed the girl up to the balcony-like second floor of the room. Nobody else was up there who didn't work for SHIELD, and Tony made a mental note to have J.A.R.V.I.S. send an apology to all the guests who had been (probably) not-so-subtly threatened off this prime area for spying.

"Ya know, if you want to get me alone you could always just call." Tony said the moment he was up there, knowing this won't earn any reaction from the agents, except a slightly annoyed look from Natasha. "So what, we gonna move in and arrest this guy or wait till Loki's given him the run of my house?"

Fury's look was darker than it normally was, and Tony felt his heart plummet. Because _nothing_ worried Fury, and suddenly he was scanning the crowd for Loki and some person other than Hammer around him. "Have you ever heard of Hydra?"

"Nazi deep-science division, led by some nutjob named Johann Schmidt. You guys gave me the file." He hadn't paid it much attention, just enough to know that one of his dad's friends-some guy called Captain America- had stopped it from being used to destroy the world, and they'd found it in the ocean after the war was over. Someone smart enough to harness that energy- which Tony was hoping Erik had been able to do by now- he hadn't asked when the guy came to pick up Jane- and absolutely nuts. "They not floating around still, are they?"

Fury stared back at him, impassive, and Natasha sighed. "Think, Mr. Stark. I know you like mythology."

"What the hell does that-" Oh. Right. The Hydra, one of Hercules' twelve tasks, multi-headed monster and yadayada. The _Lernaen_ Hydra. "Fucking hell. I should have- you guys must've caught the name, why the hell didn't you say anything?" How had he missed that? JARVIS had hacked their computer, Tony'd been through pages and pages of information on this company, everything from who worked there to ever last thing they'd ordered since beginning, to the residential and personal information of whatever alias had paid the lease on the building, to the god damn _caterers_, but nothing useful. Nothing about this.

"We had to confirm it." Coulson cut in, sounding way too calm about the fact that some _fucking mad scientist_ was talking to his boyfriend. Tony's _Norse god_ boyfriend, who would pose a definite interest to the nutjob who thought he was on par with a god and would probably love to take advantage of the fact that Loki was still bruised and battered to get some information out of him. "Now that we know-"

"Know? Know what? It's been seventy years, you're not telling me Johann Schmidt just walked in here after being dead for seventy years." He hissed, because though he would have loved to shout Natasha was looking at his neck in a way he didn't like, and he'd prefer not to be drugged before this night was over. "How did SHIELD not notice?"

"We're working on figuring that out." She retorted in a snappish voice, arms crossed in a warning. "The important thing is that he seems to want us to recognize him. He used a company name with a connection to his prior one, and his mask matches up the photographs we have of him from the forties."

"So it's a trap then?" Tony wondered, finding the idea absolutely ridiculous for a moment then freezing at the looks on their faces. Right. A trap, but not one that said they already knew about Loki, or they wouldn't be bothering with Stark equipment if they thought they could get their hands on a god. What for, then? Whatever it was, Tony finally caught sight of his boyfriend in the crowd, talking quite calmly to a tall, _very_ German man with an extremely sour expression while Hammer hung back in the background, looking uncomfortable.

Tony would have rushed down to the workshop, donned his suit, and blasted this guy out of his house before he could hurt Loki if not for Natasha. He hadn't so much as finished turning before she was just in front of him, something in her expression saying '_yes I _can_ kick your ass in a gown and high heels_'. Normally he'd have made some snap comment, but he could only narrow his eyes and turn around furiously, seeing in their eyes that Fury and Coulson didn't share his concern.

"He could die." Tony insisted at last, one of the few genuine things he'd said to either of them, too focused on Loki's safety to bother with sarcasm. "Run down there and drag that guy to jail."

"Knowing Schmidt he's got something up his sleeve." Fury was way too calm, though he was beginning to sound annoyed now. Probably didn't like his consultant's one-track mind, but god damn if he wasn't putting the entire room in danger. Everyone Tony cared about most was here, and this nutjob could kill them all. "And besides, we need to see what his plans are. Why would he hire Hammer, of all people, and what he's doing with that company."

"Oh, I don't know, probably just trying to take over the entire fucking _world_ again, no big deal." Tony was being louder than he should have been, but from this distance and with the music playing so loudly none of the guests even looked. He wanted to protest more, to shout and insist they do something about all this, to take the risk of having an arm snapped by Natasha and fight his way down there if he had to.

But he couldn't, knew none of that would work or would only alert Schmidt that he was in danger. So Tony turned away from Fury before he could make himself sick with anger, and just watched Loki and hoped to whatever god was listening that he would be all right.

VVV

Stark's fears were virtually groundless- Loki could tell immediately any number of things wrong with Johan Schmidt (a scar below the ear, clearly either a mask or surgery, a lilted American accent not quite free of his home country, a soldier's tension, a concealed gun, just under his hip and another sort of weapon in each boot, hard to tell with the outfit) and allowed no ounce of tension to show. His body, his voice, his eyes as they locked with the other man's and held fast during their conversation were perfectly still, though he couldn't help being vaguely impressed by the air of absolute strength this man held. Oh, he was hardly human, hardly a man- but Loki hadn't quite picked up on what he really was yet.

Hammer was terrified of him, that much was absolutely clear. He didn't even make his usual attempts at painful conversation, flinched visibly when he was addressed and gave some babbled, half-meaningful response. Loki found he was enjoying that, very much, and continuously called for more wine or champagne, rum, mead, whatever they seemed to have on hand with the pretense of helping the other man to relax.

Schmidt could obviously hold his liquor, remained perfectly sober even after a fifth or sixth glass. Loki was well aware most mortals would be tipsy by this point, and that was exactly his purpose in drinking a glass and a half or more to each one of Schmidt's.

"Tony and I get along _very_ well." He assured the first time the man was mentioned- not long past the introductions, Schmidt had been determined that they "skip the formalities" wherever possible- with a smile and wink to match no sober man would play up. "But of course… well, he doesn't use half of what his mind comes up with. Brilliant man, in more ways than one, but he really does waste far too much. I assume you wouldn't?"

Schmidt wasn't even pretending to be amused by his apparently inebriated state, and his voice was harsh when he responded. "Not at all. That's not why I'm here, Lauson, you know that."

"Not for the party, either, judging by that look. Pity." Loki grinned, he'd been drunk enough times to know he would find this absolutely hilarious if the alcohol really had affected him yet, and shrugged when the other man remained stony-faced. "No, you want a look around, don't you? You know, should have just dropped by any other time. It's my house too, now, I'm allowed guests."

"I will keep that in mind. If you would?" Schmidt was most definitely not the patient type, and Loki found himself very much intrigued by him. No, not at all like any mortal man he'd seen yet- colder, more dangerous, and no matter how Fury or Coulson tried to obtain a similar sense of power they could never imitate this.

"Oh, of course. Justin, right this way." Loki bowed theatrically, finding the movement oddly amusing considering his clothing, then straightened up with a bit of a hop and waved them towards the door. Schmidt moved on without pause, smacking Hammer's shoulder lightly when the engineer was late to follow.

Loki himself hung back, only a moment, to turn in Stark's direction. He'd given no sign that he could sense the other man watching him during the conversation, but when he saw the worry and anxiety that was positively _endearing_ he couldn't resist a slight smirk. He raised a finger to his lips calmly, whispered a silent "shh" and turned after his two "bosses".

Schmidt didn't seem rude, but certainly rather blunt and to the point, especially since he was apparently under the belief that his employee was so drunk he would hardly remember a word of conversation in the morning. So Loki was more than ready to babble away, inventing any number of lies about Stark as he led them towards the workshop, giving J.A.R.V.I.S. a quick assurance that of course they had permission, now let him through before he hacked the whole motherboard.

"So, I hope Hammer is very good at what he does." Loki mused with a laugh that wasn't entirely false because no, he highly doubted that. "Tony's work is complicated."

"Justin will not be finishing these designs." Schmidt assured casually, missing the look of annoyance on the former prisoner's face or else choosing to ignore it. "I have many more talented men on my staff. Stark will not miss his work?"

Definitely foreign, probably from one of those… European, was that the right word? Loki'd visited more than a few, especially during the time when people were most inclined to believe in him. Prussian, was that the right one? No matter. He had scientists working for him then, no surprise, and Hammer hadn't been pulled out for work. The real purpose, then, probably had something to do with Stark. "Oh, no, I ask to see them and he hands me a box or two of prints. Anything goes missing and he'll be fine to accept that I'm just playing with it."

"His computer will not notice?" The man had adapted, then, very quickly to J.A.R.V.I.S. whereas Hammer was still frowning in envy as they entered the garage and passed the main computer.

Loki knew the computer was intelligent, unnervingly so at times, and would not misread the situation and set up any alarms. Stark seemed to trust him more than he should, but at the moment the god had no intention of handing over anything important, anyway. Still, better shut off the cameras down there, which of course the computer refused but with a bit if magic disguised as programming Loki took care of that minor problem. "Oh, of course not. I'll just shut that down for the day, I know how he works. The computer. Tony, too, but I don't think you want me going into detail about that."

Another grin, and no reaction from Schmidt but a slightly put-off frown from Hammer. Homophobic, definitely so, restrained disgust in every tensed muscle of his body, but he wasn't quite stupid enough to say anything. Not smart enough to hide it, either. "I certainly do not." The foreigner agreed, bypassing the discarded parts, half-built machines, and finished projects lying about the lab's floor and heading further back.

Loki would have glared if he'd been any less focused on his façade. Of course none of this was of interest, but Schmidt seemed too certain he knew where to find something that was. It wouldn't have been too surprising, really, if he'd installed some sort of camera in those CDs they'd run, but no- J.A.R.V.I.S. would have caught that. Probably photographs online, then- Stark wasn't too secretive about his work, there was plenty of easy access for the public, if one knew where to look.

Hammer had distracted himself with the Iron Man suits, staring in awe as if he'd never seen something quite so beautiful as three in the same spot. He'd probably thought there was only one, two at the most, and as far as Loki could tell from flipping through old newspapers Rhodes was in possession of one other. Schmidt seemed entirely disinterested in the suits, however, opened a few drawers and moved for another but found it stuck. Disinterested, and seeing no lock, he merely pulled harder. Clearly the man relied heavily on his strength, because there was suspicion and a touch of surprise when he turned to look at Loki, who gave a drunken shrug.

"Hate that one. Never quite works." He apologized, letting the warning hang between them, knowing it might go unnoticed because really, who expected a drawer to be shut by magic? "What're you looking for? I know this place very well. Oh, don't touch that."

Hammer, who'd moved on to studying whatever was lying across a workbench not far from the suits, jumped back as if he expected the parts to bite. A quick attempt to cover up his surprise resulted in him realizing, once again, that he had no pockets to hide his hands in and put them on his hips instead, jacket disheveled. "All right. Uh… why not, exactly?"

Loki was having more fun with this situation than he should have had, admittedly, but he'd always been one to tease, hadn't changed that. If he could jokingly tell his brother to _give us a kiss_, he could manage this all without so much as a blush. "Oh, Tony and I stay up very late down here… just, don't touch it." He advised calmly, grinning with more than a false-alcoholic haze when the engineer took a few hurried steps away from the bench, looking absolutely disgusted.

"The reactors. An old one, preferably." Schmidt said as if this little exchange hadn't happened, moving aside a few boxes lying on the counter of the miniature… bar, kitchen, whatever that Stark had built into the back wall. "Or what device he uses to run them."

There was hardly anything akin to emotion in Schmidt's voice, and Loki found himself suddenly very reluctant to hand the man so much as a screwdriver. Oh, yes, he wasn't at all enjoying the way the man held himself- so _arrogant_, an idiot mortal who seemed to think himself above all he surveyed; pathetic- nor how freely he sifted though Stark's possessions. But he was demanding something dangerous, now, something that would put more than just Loki at risk.

He'd accepted that Stark was going to be involved in all this sooner or later when he'd suggested the party, however, and called for J.A.R.V.I.S. to tell him where the old reactor cores were kept. The computer replied instantly, as if it could read the situation as well as a real, breathing, thinking thing. Impressive, for midgardian technology.

Loki moved to the spot he'd mentioned, making it very clear in some half-drunk way that Schmidt was no welcome to touch any of all that. A drawer at the main desk, of course Stark would keep them close. He pulled open the one on the bottom left, found discarded, burnt and rusted microchips, held one up with some distaste. That thing had been in the man's body, running his heart? That simply wouldn't do- good thing Stark had fixed that problem before Loki had arrived, or the god would have been compelled to do it himself. Really, how grotesque.

"Oh. Lovely." He muttered, sniffing at the thing and curling his nose up immediately afterward, as if it actually had some scent. He tossed the core to Schmidt, who caught it without so much as blinking, and grinned. "A souvenir, for your troubles. Shame I don't have a gift bag, but you know, we really are missing the best of the party."

* * *

><p>VVV<p>

Tony was freaking out.

He wanted to go call up the security tapes for every room in the goddamn house, to call the cops on Schmidt, to set one of his defenses up against him, or to rush down there and protect his boyfriend with whatever he had on hand that was sharp and pointy enough to do it. But Pepper kept stopping him, and eventually Rhodey decided to warn his friend that he'd come by with a box of tampons the next day if he couldn't get his PMS under control.

Okay, that was just mean. Highly effective in getting him to shut the hell up, but mean. Whatever, Tony'd said worse things, but still took it upon himself to pout in silence until a slight breeze told him the door was opening again.

Hammer went through first, talking on the phone and looking desperate to get the hell out of there- finally realizing he was out of his league in all this, no doubt- which Schmidt and a seemingly drunk-of-his-ass Nordic deity. Yet for all his feigned alcoholism- Tony was guessing it was feigned because the guy'd drained half a bottle of his best gin and been perfectly sober afterward- the god was fine. Calm, casual, in control and unhurt. Seeing as Schmidt was in the same state, sans alcohol, this boded very well for the situation.

Damn, how did he handle that? Tony was good with this sort of thing, if he really wanted to be, but he could never have imitated that ease positively rolling of Loki's every movement, an absolute master at what he was doing. Whatever he was doing, because this fell into the double-agent act but it was difficult to call it that when half the time he could hardly believe these little games of Loki's were a lie.

Pepper snorted, and Tony turned to her with some surprise to find she was smirking at him, Rhodey only rolling his eyes. "See? It's not him you should be worried about." She taunted, and he knew he was probably smiling in a very un-Tony-ish way as he looked on, but that doesn't matter.

He quickly regained his composure, made some comment about welcoming the crazy supervillain guests and how rude of her not to have done so yet, before walking over to join them. Hammer did his best to pretend he didn't notice, but Schmidt turned away from Loki and ignored the god so plainly Tony could have smacked him.

Not now, probably a bad idea. "Mr. Stark. I am a big fan of your work." The man said, holding out a hand only after Tony'd already done so, and "Mr. Stark" knew this was probably the only genuine thing he'd hear for this entire conversation, but with Loki standing a few feet away he could deal with that. Probably.

**A/N:And tada! Most of you probably expected Schmidt to be the one making an appearance, so it shouldn't be much of a surprise. The plot thickens, and all that (though it's probably only the consistency of watered-down pudding. And wow, that pun was awful. Or metaphor. Whatever.). I hope you guys are enjoying to story so far! Reviews are love, as always.3 I proof-read this while I was a little out of it, so hopefully I didn't miss any glaring mistakes.**

**Also, though this may constitute spoilers or whatever, fair warning because I just changed the rating last chapter: next chapter will contain sex. So, if you don't like that, best just to skip it, I'm not making any huge revelations or anything beforehand, don't worry.**


	14. The Tortoise and the Hare

**A/N: Sorry for the week between chapters, guys. I'm not sure why it's taking so long, but hey, at least you get sex. That makes up for the wait, I hope.**

**Um… yeah. That's this chapter- sex. I didn't want to put in much plot just in case there were any readers who were uncomfortable and just wanted to skip the chapter, so it's pretty much just sex. Enjoy.**

**(Also, I did a silly little sketch of Loki's mask. I drew it before I wrote the scene though, so the outfit itself is wrong, but the mask is the same. My art sucks, but whatever. Here it is on my tumblr: .com/post/16502929354/ .)**

VVV

How a group of adults could make this sort of mess Loki had no idea, but he frowned and kicked aside a beer bottle-where had that even _come_ from?-with distaste as he leaned against the bar, surveying the apocalyptic post-party mess. Pepper, Rhodes and, of course Stark were there too, the latter leaning against Loki's shoulder and ignoring the mess while the former were debating what to do about it.

"Loki, just magic it all away or something." Stark suggested, which was a perfectly viable suggestion but not a reasonable one, so the god merely smirked and didn't answer. "J.A.R.V.I.S., I want a cleaning crew in here tomorrow at eleven."

"Very well, sir."

Pepper sighed and bent down, picked up what appeared to be a piece of woman's underwear. "How in god's name-?" She only shook her head, threw it behind the counter as the rest of them laughed. "I thought a _ball_ would be a little classier than this."

"Thought it was. I didn't notice anyone stripping in the corners, anyway." Rhodes admitted before shrugging and draining what remained of the champagne he'd been holding. "Tony's place just brings out the debauchery in people."

"Damn right it does." Stark agreed with a smirk, raising a hand to point at the ceiling as if in triumph. "I pride myself on this fact and I'm not changing it for anyone."

"Well, so long as we were lucky enough not to see any debauchery from Hammer." Loki mused, which earned a disgusted shudder from the weight leaning against him. The image was not a pretty one, but the god could, unfortunately, say that he had seen far worse. A multi-millennium lifespan was not always a positive thing.

"Okay, ignoring that," Pepper grimaced, looking as if she could do for a drink herself, "Somebody should explain to Loki that-"

"Schmidt is the former leader of a scientific research division by the name of Hydra." The god himself cut in calmly, only smirking at their disbelief. Now really, did they think he'd simply ignored Fury and Coulson's presence? Once the guests had begun to leave it was a simple matter to snatch that bit of information out of them, heading to their car under the firm belief that they went unnoticed. "I'm curious as to how a mortal's survived this long, and yet he didn't seem entirely mortal to me. No doubt a product of whatever he was researching."

"I bet SHIELD's got some ideas. I'll get J.A.R.V.I.S. to hack 'em later." Stark assured casually. "Already done it, actually. We can read up on all that later."

"You hacked the government." Pepper could only sigh and shake her head in apparent disbelief, though Loki himself was entirely unsurprised. Really, he'd begun to expect this sort of thing by now. "Of course you did. Any plans for what you're going to do when Fury breaks the door down and arrests you?"

"Eh, I've done worse." They could only shrug at that, conceding the point. "Speaking of which, who invited the reporter?"

"Christine?"

"Yeah. That one. I think she's going to write about me and Loki tomorrow." Stark mused, thinking about this for a moment before seeming to decide he liked it. "So expect protestors. And televangelists, or whatever those religious guys who knock on doors are."

"I highly doubt you'll have to be concerned with that." Loki assured with a laugh, unable to imagine any sort of religious advocate making it so far as ten feet up the manor's walk. "J.A.R.V.I.S. will keep them out."

Rhodes raised an eyebrow suspiciously, and the god only tilted his head innocently, half tempted to make an illusionary halo appear above his head. "If you magic any protestors out into the middle of the ocean I'm going to have to arrest you, you know."

"Duly noted, I'll ensure they land in a jungle. Far nicer this time of year anyway."

"Specifics will get you nowhere." Stark lectured, waving a warning finger in Rhodes' direction. "And I dunno about that. Ocean's nice and cold, it's what, eighty degrees half the time nowadays?"

"Is it?" Loki had never noticed the heat, and now that he knew why suddenly wished he had. "Well, they're bound to get sunburnt then."

"True. Jungle's got shade."

"And rivers, they could cool down there."

"Plenty of food."

"Endless photography opportunities."

"Okay, okay, I get the point." Rhodes rolled his eyes at their banter, earned a look from Pepper that clearly said '_see what I have to deal with?_'. "You two lovebirds can decide where Loki's going to teleport any troublesome reporters then get back to me. I've got to go to work in the morning. Ready to go?"

Pepper nodded, and Stark frowned and stood up straight. "What? Pep, you leaving?"

"James gave me a ride. I still haven't moved in with you, you know." She retorted with a teasing smile that implied she'd been asked many times in the past. "You two don't make things worse. And don't let him drink, Loki."

"Understood." This earning a pouting look from Stark, who was eyeing the leftover bowls and bottles and cups of drink within an arm's reach from them wistfully.

The two bade goodnight, Pepper with a promise to be there the next day and Rhodes demanding they call and tell him next time something happened with Lernaea, before leaving Loki and Stark to the room. The latter immediately reached for some of the left over wine, but the former quickly snatched it away and drained the few swallows remaining in the bottle.

"Now now, no drinking." He warned, calmly reaching for another half-finished drink (mead, how quaint) and began to finish that off, removing the temptation from Stark. An idea came to him and he smiled slightly, hurried to swallow what remained so quickly his stomach ached afterward.

"That's cheating." Stark protested, but made no move for the alcohol again. Clearly he doubted he'd manage it, and was watching Loki move for another wine bottle with interest. "You planning to drink all that?"

"If it will keep you away from it, yes." The god was more than used to his drink, though he was probably going to have too much liquid in his system for awhile after this. There was hardly anything missing from this bottle, so he made no attempt to finish it all off in one go.

"I can just go out and buy some, you know." Stark protested, clearly forgetting he'd downed nearly two bottles of hard liquor and needed to be carried home the last time this happened. "Fine. Whatever. Can gods get drunk?"

"Certainly." Hmph, this stuff was fairly bitter. Luckily it was the last of that next wine, most had been finished off by the guests. "It takes quite a bit, though."

"Well, just be careful. You're still injured." Stark pointed out, shrugged when he saw the god wasn't concerned by this. "So, Schmidt like the house, or do you think we should consider redecorating?"

VVV

God, Loki could drink. Tony was finding it extremely unfair how there wasn't even a blush on his cheeks yet, and the guy was literally chugging down bottles of alcohol. Not to mention what he'd had during the party- how did his stomach even have room for all that?

The god only smirked at the question, twirling his mask on one finger and taking another heavy swig of wine. "Hammer is now terrified of your workbench. And highly uncomfortable in my presence."

"My… workbench?" Tony grinned, realizing what this meant after only a moment of thought. "Oh. Man, you're evil, you know that? Now every time I look at the guy I'm going to be reminded that the only thing he's able to think about in our company is us naked in my workshop."

"Odd how inattentive he is. I'd already told that woman that we haven't had sex." He mused, shrugging and finishing off the wine._ Christ_, how the hell was this guy not drunk yet? No fair. Being divine was cheating.

"Probably thought you were just trying to shut her up. Speaking of which, we really are going to get protestors, ya know. Also weird men in rainbow scarves asking for interviews for gay pride newscasts."

Loki only stared at him in confusion and Tony grinned, of course he wouldn't know about the whole rainbow thing. Probably wouldn't appreciate what this implied about his rainbow bridge, bifrost, whatever. "Don't worry 'bout it. But you are gonna get bugged on the streets, you all good with that?"

A smile from Loki, not mocking or cold but genuine and… almost soft, so that Tony found himself smiling back without thinking about it. "Of course I am. I would never have been able to hide for very long, anyway. I want everyone to be jealous that _I_ get the "great" Tony Stark." And he picked up another bottle, drinking without even checking the label this time.

Okay, so maybe he could feel alcohol, because Tony was pretty sure Loki'd never have said that in a normal situation. But hey, it was nice to hear. "I think they'll just die of shock first. Never admitted to a stable relationship before. Stable…ish. No, had stable-ish, that was me and Pepper. We uh… kind of… Oh crap. Pepper."

"She and I spoke, I think she just registered that you two were falling apart." He took deep drink from the bottle, looking a little hazy by the time he'd set it down again. "Or something of those lines."

"Yeah…sums it up." Great, now Tony wanted a drink, but he doubted Loki would let him have one. He couldn't even do a relationship with Pepper right. Pepper, who he loved and cared about and _knew_. How did he plan to make this work? Loki was an anomaly, and damn if he wasn't absolutely captivating in every sense, and Tony _wanted_ to make this work, would do anything to keep himself from wrecking it, but how long could that possibly last? He was trying to move slowly, at least, but that wasn't too easy when that kiss had come two weeks later than it should have.

Well, for him this _had_ been slow, just paid off well in the eager heat from both of them. Guess there was some truth to that- Slow and steady wins the race.

Loki seemed well aware of his internal monologue, or else he was just drinking a little too much rum, because he pulled Tony in by the waist and kissed him full on. Not like earlier, sweet and calm and gentle, but rough and warm, biting at his lip and taking advantage of his surprise to roll his tongue through the engineer's mouth. Was this taking it slow? Tony didn't know, all he knew about relationships he got from bad romantic comedies, but he responded in kind either way, reveling in the taste of alcohol and some lingering hint of that same cold from before.

Tony knew he should have left it there when he pulled back, especially because Loki had taken another swig of alcohol and this couldn't be entirely consensual at this rate, but he couldn't help it. The god tasted… good. Not in the way of "oh he's an amazing kisser" or "he's just really sexy" but _good_. Tony was finding himself rapidly addicted to that flavor he'd only really had twice, a flavor he'd had no idea could exist but knew with certainty that he'd been looking for for a very long time, in alcohol, woman, drugs, dancing, gambling, whatever.

So he didn't protest when Loki moved in for another kiss, flushed enough that Tony could feel it, should have pulled back and given the guy his choice. But this was just a kiss, right? No big deal.

"Better?" The god wondered with a smirk once he'd pulled back, finishing off what little had remained of the rum and setting it aside. "If not, I'll happily try again."

"No… no that helped." Helped what? What were they trying to help, exactly? "You're uh… really touchy today."

"Today? No more than usual." Loki purred, leaning in to nip at his neck in a way that was _far_ from usual, yeah, but Tony tensed appreciatively despite himself. "Or maybe I am. You look _very_ nice in that costume, you know."

"Uh… thanks?" Thanks. Wow. Okay Tony, not your crown achievement in terms of witty comebacks, but Loki was kissing his neck now, licking and biting at the skin and it felt _good._ He started to say something else but only just managed to bite back a moan, moving the god back so he could plant another kiss and distract from that.

Loki didn't fight, sunk into the kiss and pulled Tony closer, reaching for a new bottle as he did so. "Might look better without it."

Oh god. What. Tony froze, brain pulling a blank because how the hell was he supposed to respond to that? Loki took his chance to lean in again, backing the other man against the bar and kissing down his jaw, his neck, his collarbone- exposed in this weird suit. He seemed determined to go lower, reached for the buttons on Tony's shirt, but he panicked and drew away, eyes wide.

"Uh, I think you're drunk. Maybe we should just… go to bed. Or something." Okay, bad choice of words, and Loki's suggestive grin said he knew that, followed by another drink of-when had he even gotten that?- brandy before he sat what remained on the counter and stepped forward closer, leaning down to nibble at Tony's ear, breath hot.

"That sounds fun." He rumbled, licked the area between his jaw and lower ear. Tony couldn't stop himself this time, a low moan escaping before he could stifle it, skin hot and tingling with the desire just to retaliate and accept whatever was going on.

But no, wait, drunk god. Bad idea, he'd probably be pissed to wake up in the morning and remember this. "Seriously, babe. You're drunk." He tried to move the god away again, but Loki only grabbed his wrists in one hand, the other arm wrapping around Tony's waist until they were pressed together, pulling them both back and hitting the floor with a muffled "thump!".

Uh. Okay. This was weird. No, not weird, Tony'd done way worse than this in way more obscure places- but _Loki_ was the one insisting on a makeout session in the party room? Definitely not expected. "Not drunk. I know what I'm doing." He insisted, rolling them over before Tony could protest and kissing down again, letting one hand roam up the front of his costume, cold against the warm skin of his chest.

Tony shivered despite himself and returned the kiss, cuffing his hand around a handful of Loki's thick black hair. What was he doing? This wasn't right, but he found it very hard to care, and what the hell, not like they were naked or anything. Though the god seemed intent on changing that sometime soon, letting the one hand find its way to the arc reactor and trace the sensitive skin around it, causing Tony to suck in a breath and tense up, heat and fear fighting for control. He didn't like people touching that, but Loki murmured some half-coherent reassurance in his ear and he managed to relax, accept the sensation as a good thing.

"Can we pretend it's not the rum that's making you this eager?" Tony gasped, actually _gasped_. All they were doing was making out like teenagers in the back alley of a high school prom, and he was breathless.

Loki's mouth was on his neck again, running his tongue across the skin slowly. "Of course it's not. I want _you_, drink or no." He murmured, voice slurring slightly as he moved to nibble the skin.

Okay, that was probably not true, but it was good enough for Tony, anyway. He kept one hand in the god's vaguely curly hair, let the other pull him down harder, closer for a kiss. Hot and heavy and hungry, neither of them pulling apart until they had to breath, tongues rolling through each other's mouths, sucking at each other's lips. This was… passionate. He had no other word for it, no other memory that could even compare to this. The god probably had a million, but they were both breathing hard by the end as if neither had so much as kissed _anyone_ before.

Loki drew back from this kiss with a smile. Not a smirk, or a laugh, or any teasing, arousing sort of thing- just a genuine smile that set Tony's hear pounding, because that spoke more than anything he'd ever heard the god say. Before he could do anything about that Loki's hand moved from the reactor, tracing a slow, steady circle over his nipple. Tony groaned, hoped he'd managed to do it silently enough, than tilted his head back with a heavy moan before he could stop himself. The trickster's other hand had moved down between them, stroking the hardness that had pulled the cloth over Tony's groin taut. Travelled back up, joined the other in working at the buttons of his shirt and Tony was about to make some sort of complaining noise when Loki shifted, nearly straddling the other man so that they were pressed together, nothing but a few layers of cloth separating them.

Loki began to rock his hips, grinding slowly, sensually against him, shooting waves of heat through Tony's body. He stifled another moan, arching his back without shame and trying to press closer, match the god's tempo and hoping that if there was anything he forgot in his drunkenness it would be this, the girlish flush that burned in his cheeks, super-heated his breath.

His shirt was half open now, only need to be pulled away along with the jacket, and Tony moved to rid Loki of that costume, clenching the fabric tight and tipping his head back with a gasp when they brushed together in a particularly heady way. He was dizzy with arousal, but shook his head suddenly, breathing hard, and moved to kiss Loki again because he didn't want his mouth distracted by something as simple as talk any more than it had to be.

"Wait," Tony gasped, and he saw something more than confusion in the god's eyes. "No, don't stop but… Not here, okay?"

He took a quick look around the room and laughed, seeming to agree. The room was still littered with discarded masks, splashes of alcohol, broken glass from cups and bottles, and some confetti that Tony was pretty sure hadn't actually been part of the party. Probably not the best environment for sex. Also, though he wouldn't admit it out loud, Tony had a feeling that he'd be out of it way past eleven, and better not to give the cleaning crew a heart attack when they walked in.

"Very well. Not here. Where, then?" Loki murmured, nibbling again at Tony's ear and refusing to move, their rubbing erections making it very hard to think clearly, let alone form a coherent sentence.

"Um…. Ah, ro~om. Yeah, your room's closest." Tony decided once he'd managed to control his voice, nevertheless trembling a bit on the "room", then covering it up with a quick torrent of words that left him breathing fast. Though being half-naked and straddled by the god of mischief might have had something to do with that, too.

Loki smirked and sat up, not giving Tony the choice of whether or not to follow, an arm around the small of his back pulling him up into another kiss before he could. He returned the kiss eagerly, still far from tired of that taste, and wrapped both arms around to pull the god closer so that he could steer them both onto their feet. The semi-inebriated god wasn't making this too easy, but he allowed himself to be guided, never once breaking the kiss until they were standing steady.

"I hope you know your way to the nearest elevator, because I'm not letting you go just so we can walk." Loki purred, immediately diving in for another, deep kiss to prove his point.

Tony liked the sound of that, but he doubted he could maneuver them without tripping over himself. If he'd been with a girl he'd have picked her up and carried her so they could walk without having to stop, but he knew Loki was way too heavy, and no way in hell would he allow himself to be carried. So fine, he could manage this, just backed them both up, intending to head out the door when they reached it but only pushing the god against it, pressing deeper into another kiss, closer against his body.

God, this was perfect. Loki was perfect, beautiful, and a million other things Tony'd never before applied in all seriousness.

Eventually it was Loki who managed to reach behind himself and throw open the door, stumbling back without so much as faltering in his hold. Tony was reluctant to pull away and did so only to breathe, planning to take maybe a few steps forward and at least getting them towards the elevator before distracting himself again, but one look at Loki's kiss-swollen lips and he dove forward again.

This wasn't taking it slow, was it? This was hungry and desperate and heavy, but whatever rational part of Tony's mind might have protested this was currently occupied with keeping them from falling over a glass coffee table as they stumbled towards the elevator. It opened for them, no need to press a button with J.A.R.V.I.S. running the thing and probably painfully aware of what they wanted, and Loki took advantage of the upcoming wait to tear off what remained of Tony's shirt and jacket. Now completely bare chested, the engineer hurried to return the favor, but the period piece Loki had on was full of fake buttons and ridiculous knots and strings, not the easiest thing to remove while pressed against an elevator wall.

"Damn thing is _not_ easy access." Tony panted, unlocking their mouths so he could try to do the same to that shirt, only managing to tear off a button that seemed to be real, leaving the thing stuck at the collar. Okay, screw that, better just to rip the fabric and get on with it- but the stuff was unfairly sturdy. "Unless you're planning to fuck with your clothes on I'm gonna need a little help."

"What a crude term." Loki mused, snapping his fingers absently and sending the shirt away, moving in for a briefer, almost harsh kiss as he started to undo Tony's belt. "Must mortals make everything sound so rough?"

"Okay, so uh… what do you call it then?" The trousers for that costume were much simpler, gave way with almost no trouble and fell to the ankles as soon as they were unbuttoned- the only benefit of mildly puffy pants.

"Sex." Well, that was pretty obvious, but Tony couldn't make some snide remark about this because the god had succeeded in removing his slacks, and once they'd both kicked those aside slipped his hand down the front of his boxers.

"Blue?" The god purred with a laugh, stroking his hand over Tony's painfully erect cock, earning a heated gasp. "Interesting."

"Sorry, don't color-coordinate my underwear on the off chance you're gonna get drunk and tackle me onto the floor." Tony complained, the effect of which was largely ruined by a moan as Loki rolled his thumb over his head. They were both breathing more quickly now, but Loki not nearly enough, so Tony crashed their lips together and returned the favor, taking the god in his hand and stroking roughly.

Clearly he hadn't expected that. Loki bucked forward against Tony's hand and his own strokes faltered for a moment, moaning into the other's kiss. Oh _god_ that was an amazing sound. Tony shuddered appreciatively and picked up his tempo a bit.

"Hnng!" The trickster gasped and pulled away from the kiss, squeezing his eyes shut against a rush of pleasure and pressing in again with heavy breath. Tony wasn't going to last long if that kept up, so he pulled his hand away and locked them both in the god's hair, bringing him closer for a deeper, messier kiss.

Loki did the same after a brief hesitation, and a moment later the elevator stopped- had it been running slower than usual? Better thank J.A.R.V.I.S. after this- and they drew away in full, a smile on those clever lips that was almost too much for Tony. He found himself returning the smile, and wondered how he was supposed to describe this. He'd never felt love before, but this… damn, if it weren't so feminine he'd've said he was _melting_, but no way, he wasn't some teenage girl.

Even so there was no other word for this absolutely giddy feeling, so he only kissed the god again, confident they could make it the fifteen feet or so to Loki's door without his guidance. And somehow they did, even if once they were in the bedroom Tony was tempted just to tear the guy's boxers off and fall to the floor right there. But a moment later he was pushed back against the bed, Loki on top of him in a second and pulling away his underwear.

No preamble, Tony could deal with this- far as he was concerned the agonizing trip up here was enough of that, and he rid Loki of that last bit of clothing. Aroused as he was, desperate to just grab the god and say 'okay, sex time, let's go' and either fuck him senseless or just take it, he had to freeze for a moment. Appreciate the fact that there was a _Norse god_ lying naked on top of him, now planting kisses and affectionate bites all along his collar bone. Beautiful. Stunning. Perfect. Loki was all of that, and much more- from his ruffled black hair, flushed cheeks and lips, hungry eyes, to the soft, tense tones of his muscle-not bulky or thick, but predatory and lithe, made like a whip- or the length of those legs and marred beauty of his skin. Perfect.

But wait, marred beauty? Oh shit.

Tony sat up suddenly, and Loki drew back in surprise. "Shit, you're still injured, we can't-"

"I'm well enough to manage this." The god assured him with a drunken chuckle that said no, he probably wasn't, and would already be sore in the morning even if they let things stop there. Protest would have been the best course of action, but Tony's body wasn't listening to his brain, insisting that if Loki said he was fine then he was fine- and no way was he letting himself get _this_ worked up and then bailing out, right?

"Still worried." Tony muttered with a great show of will, and damn- Loki should be grateful he was even capable of that. He had worse self control on a normal day.

"I'll be fine. But if you're so paranoid…." Loki merely smirked suggestively, and a moment later his head was moving down, with obvious intention.

Tony didn't think much-all his blood was far from his brain anyway- and had hurried to say "No!" before he could stop himself. Once again, the god's face lit with confusion, and this time a little uncertainty, like he thought he might be doing something wrong. _God_ that was adorable, and ridiculously alluring even though it really shouldn't have been. "I just uh… first time, something shared, ya know?"

Okay, that didn't make much sense, but at least Loki's worry had transformed into amusement. "I don't think you could handle me, Stark." He warned, leaning forward for another, briefer kiss. "I'm a god, you know."

"That's why man invented baby oil." Tony replied, though he didn't have anything of the sort in this room. Dammit. Well, he wasn't leaving to get any- maybe Loki could just conjure some, or something.

That smirk said 'or something' was going to turn out to be a very accurate description. "This might feel unusual." The warning hit his ear with a hot breath, and Tony let out a low moan to egg him on.

Loki must have been using some very unorthodox brand of magic, because Tony-who'd never had _anyone_ inside him like this, never even been prepared or teased- didn't feel anything but a rush when the god tested him out with a finger. Weird, yeah, and he wasn't not quite sure how to react to it because he hadn't even had time to position himself, but his body was accepting this, and he'd drawn his knees back to make more room for Loki to get even closer before he really registered what was happening.

The god smirked slightly at this involuntary reaction and another finger followed, this one bringing a gasp of pleasure and a little bit of pain from Tony. He groaned and buried his head in the other's shoulder, grabbing hold of those pale wrists and clenching tight to suppress a desperate cry as Loki began to test moving his fingers about, stretching Tony. Whatever magical substitute for lubricant he was using sent sparks of pleasure rushing through his body, made him shudder and buck his hips to bring him further in. He was panting, trembling with built up sexual tension from the scene in the elevator but too proud to beg, though a muffled moan and upward thrust- oh _god_ that felt good, he was going to lose it before they even started at this rate- said enough. A third finger followed the second and Tony didn't even try to hold back, moaned and rocked his hips shamelessly, which seemed to please Loki. He scissored his fingers experimentally, eliciting another gasp of pleasure, and pinned down the arm that wasn't clutching at his with his free hand. A moment later he drew out, and Tony didn't complain despite the frustrated ache that followed this- knew what was coming and sucked in a ragged breath to prepare for it.

He pressed his forehead harder against Loki's shoulder, appreciated the feeling of that cold white skin and tried to focus on that rather than what was about to come. Even so drew his knees back further to welcome the god, practically straddling him. Their chests were pressed together, and Tony's back was shoved hard against the mattress, but the god was so damn _tall_ that his back was still slightly arched to compensate for the good five inch difference between them. No fair.

Loki leaned down and kissed his neck, began to bite at it teasingly, while Tony was too busy aching for the man to do more than make some snap comment about how hadn't _he_ been the eager one earlier and what exactly had happened to that? Loki chuckled, the gusts of hot breath this generated causing another low moan from Tony, and situated his cock over the man's entrance, let him suck in air and shut his eyes in anticipation, then pushed in. Slowly, _agonizingly_ so.

Tony groaned, both from the pain and the pleasure he knew was being delayed, and arched his back with a low cry. Loki took advantage of it when his head flew back and took him into another kiss, breathing hard, now, with the effort of keeping this cautious pace. Fuck that, Tony'd get used to the feeling _later_. He bucked his hips, moaning as this brought Loki in deeper, grinding upward and feeling his thighs quiver because this was so _foreign_ but so _good_. God, he wanted more, wanted all of him, and said so in a voice taut with pleasure, words interrupted halfway through by a needy gasp.

Loki was apparently drunk enough to be vaguely compliant, because he gave no protest and pounded into Tony, the shock of it so much the man could only whimper and hold his breath, trying to get used to the feeling of being filled by another man. It took a moment, but once he'd let out that breath and kissed Loki again with a fervor the god pulled half-way out then thrust in again. Tony stifled a moan, managed only to hitch his breath when the action was repeated, but dissolved into a series of gasps and half-coherent cries when Loki found a rhythm.

Why the hell had they waited so long to do this? This was amazing, in every sense of the word, and each new thrust blindsided him with pleasure, elicited sounds he'd never admit to making outside of this moment. Not for anybody else- only for Loki would he submit this much, verbally and physically.

Loki hit a particularly sensitive spot and Tony cried out in earnest, clenching around the god in a way that brought a satisfying gasp. He began to drive against that spot, breathing hard and clutching his lover's (that term applied now, didn't it? Tony liked it, very much so) wrists so tightly he winced. Seeing this reaction he moved his hands down to his hips, squeezed and held him tight. Tony arched his back as best he could with this new pressure, each new movement bringing another half-choked moan and making him even harder, driving in with a steady rhythm that built and built but not _enough_. For awhile they kept this up, Tony dissolving under Loki's breath and touch and voice until the pleasure was absolutely burning. Hard enough that it almost hurt, but he wouldn't beg for more, _refused_ to under any circumstances-

"_Loki_." The name, half sobbed and barely coherent through a series of moans rising in pitch, was hot and thick with need. Well, Tony, that was good for your self esteem, why not just say "fuck me please", you'll sound less desperate. "God… oh, god… "

Loki answered, a hand shifting from his hip to his cock and stroking with a teasing chuckle, which should have been embarrassing but all Tony could think was _finally_. The rush of heat this brought, along with a bit of grinding he would deny later, caused him to tense up and moan into Loki's mouth, so tight around the other it brought a brief, unrestrained cry.

God, Loki was loud. He wasn't holding back any sound, any grunt or moan or gasp of pleasure, panting and sweaty and outright _dirty_. It wasn't the sort of thing one expected from a god, and the sight of it wasn't making it much easier for Tony to hold back the signs of release heating in his stomach. He clenched his teeth, stifled another moan, and sucked in breath at a rapid rate, failing to calm himself. No matter how his body was demanding he buck urgently against the other man, grind their bodies together and ride this out as quickly as possible, he wanted this to last. Hell, Loki was a god, Tony knew he could probably keep this up for a _very_ long time, and he wanted to give him as much of that as he could.

Loki's thumb began to roll over the head of Tony's cock, which was already dripping precum and really didn't make keeping this up any easier. Tony's hips jerked upward and his head fell back, gasping and panting, "Fuck… oh god… Loki, you're- hnng! _Fuck_."

Whether it was the words or the movement or the tightness, Loki seemed to enjoy this, hands clenching-gonna leave a bruise on his hips, and okay that hadn't been as hard as the other hand but _ow_- and rocking in harder, deeper. "T-tony…" He half-moaned the name, bucking and driving in, which alone might almost have been too much.

But god, he'd never heard Loki say his name before, not like that. Like he really _thought_ of him as Tony, not Stark or whatever, and the sound was full of breath and desperation and Tony couldn't stand that. He held onto Loki as tightly as he could, digging his fingers into the god's skin and panting, moaning with increasing intensity.

"I-I'm gonna- ah!" Right, focus. On what, exactly? Loki had wrapped his arms around Tony's waist to pull him closer, bringing him in further and shooting a blinding wave of pleasure up Tony's body, shaking him with it. Oh god, he wasn't going to last, felt himself driving to the edge and Loki wasn't even _tired_ yet.

Another upward thrust and Tony was blindsided, coming with some half-coherent cry that was meant to be the god's name, might have been but he could hardly tell. He bucked into Loki's hand, fell back panting and dizzy with the bleeding effects of orgasm, felt the god kissing him through some haze and moving back, felt him start to pull out and groaned a protest.

"No… not done…." Tony wasn't sure what he was saying, limp and dazed, but he knew he didn't want to stop just yet. Loki looked baffled by this, chuckled slightly and kissed again but didn't protest, didn't stop.

He'd never felt anything quite like this, exhausted but unwilling and unable to sleep, unable to do _anything_ but sit back and take what the god was giving him. He should have been embarrassed that he was being outlasted like this, that he was letting himself rock with Loki's thrusts and couldn't do more than gasp or whimper, but this was a _god_, and no way would he ever do better than that.

Tony half-hoped Loki wouldn't remember this, in some dizzy sort of way, because he'd never been this _submissive_ before in living memory. There's was something he needed in this, something achingly… satisfying, about just lying back, completely open, and listening to Loki murmur uselessly in his ear, both hands moving back to his hips. They were still pressed together, which felt slightly obscene because of Tony's cum but made this whole thing better, made Tony want to encourage the god and hurry him on but can barely moan, only whimpering at the end of each breath. Would have said _sighing_, but that was too much, especially for him.

He couldn't speak, tell Loki what was suddenly brimming on the edge of his tongue but was beaten away with each thrust. _I love you_, but how much could that possibly mean here? He was barely in control of what he was saying, Loki was drunk, and there'd be no point in it.

But Tony tipped his head back, sucking in a breath and struggling to let it out, looking up at the god and for once able to meet his gaze without freezing like a rabbit. God, there was so _much_ in those eyes. Thousands of years of life and emotion, and everything Tony could possibly need in the whole damn world, all right there, looking down at him, a smile and a kiss that said _I love you too, you idiot_, and Tony wasn't quite sure what to do with that.

Loki didn't let up, and Tony could actually feel himself growing hard again- groaned a little and closed his eyes because it was almost painful, shouldn't happen at his age, especially considering he'd never been on the receiving end before. The god noticed too, and bent his head low to lick the soft skin around the reactor, sensitive and frightening because Tony didn't let _anybody_ touch that, not after what happened with Obadiah. But he'd already let Loki touch it, and was agreeing to more than that by moaning and gasping, half aware he was repeating the god's name and some other forms of begging he would do his best to ignore when he thought back on this.

Loki was faltering, but only barely, and Tony couldn't help but wonder what exactly gods were built with. Whatever it was, he felt very grateful for it in that moment, was almost completely erect again and pressed upward, brought the other deeper into him and shuddered. He probably wouldn't last long a second time, but he was determined to keep up until he'd at least gotten the god to finish, whatever that he could probably keep this up for hours if he took things slowly enough.

Tony's hands fell on Loki's shoulder and pushed him upward, followed with a kiss before he could protest or ask at what he was doing. He was sitting now, legs braced on either side of the god while he situated in his lap and grit his teeth, trying to adjust to this new, deeper angle. The god gave an appreciative gasp, moved his hands from Tony's hips and pulled him in closer, practically hugging him around the middle and pressing his face against the other's neck.

"Trying new things, are we?" Loki murmured heavily, breathing hard and warm, thrusting upward and earning a low moan for the effort.

Tony tipped his head back, panting, and moved himself upward a bit, then back down over Loki's cock, bringing himself deeper around him. Okay, he could manage that, even if he was shuddering and gasping, doing his best to break the tempo of those thrusts further than he already had.

"God, I could do this forever." He moaned, bucking his hips with a cry and moving forward so that he could whisper into his lover's (that was a good term, really good) ear. "Fuck… God damn you're-hnng… perfect, this is- th-this is perfect."

And it was, there was no other possible word for it. It was all he needed, everything he'd hunted for with god knows what over the years- and he was already falling apart, crashing their lips together and moaning into them, feeling Loki's tongue in his mouth as he came again, more violently than before, clenched tight around the god with something probably closer to a wail than anything. The other rode it out, but broke the kiss, thrusting quickly and erratically for just a few more moments before spilling into Tony, his name falling past those beautiful lips (all of him was beautiful, _he_ was beautiful) in rapid gasps.

Loki's arms went slack and Tony fell back against the bed, breathing hard and barely able to process it as the god pulled out and sunk beside him. Tony was falling asleep already, but rolled to his side and glanced over his shoulder to smile, dazed and wholly used, at Loki. A slight smile in return before he sat up wearily, and Tony frowned slightly- what exactly was he doing?- but could have laughed when he felt a blanket falling over his shoulders.

Major points for that one, because the blanket-cold and soft- was the second most comfortable thing he'd ever felt in that moment. The first being Loki as he hugged him about the stomach, chest hot and sweaty and breathing hard pressed against Tony's back as the god kissed the groove between shoulder and neck, murmured something half legible.

They were both breathing hard but quickly relaxing, Loki's eyes dazed with sleep, lips parted slightly and flushed, hair sticking to forehead and neck. Beautiful. Almost adorable, even. Tony wanted to make some snap comment about the god of mischief being _cute_, but his exhaustion was giving him very little choice in the matter, and he could only press his head back against the god's chest and close his eyes. Let bliss-god, he'd never felt anything like "bliss" before, it was… nice- overtake him, matched Loki's breathing as it slowed against his back, and wondered what he'd done that made him worthy of this.

**A/N: I'm not sure if the fact that this is so long is a good thing or a bad thing.**

**Whatever. I hope you guys enjoyed this porn with something vaguely resembling a plot- I was trying to keep it from being crucial to read, in case anybody was uncomfortable with this sort of thing, but to me… dunno, had to be written. I'd worry they were moving kind of fast, but this is Tony- it wouldn't have been surprising if he'd just tackled Loki to the floor right after that first date.**

**Reviews are love, as always, and I promise the next chapter won't take a full week to post. _ Sorry for that little delay.**


	15. Chokehold

**A/N: Awesome. Look at me saying I'll post before a week is up and then NOPE. Sorry about that guys, but hey, the chapter's almost twenty pages- that's good, right? **

**I was actually pretty surprised by the positive feedback on the last chapter. Not expecting that at all. :O I'm glad you guys enjoyed it! This chapter's back on the plot rails, and I have no regrets about that newspaper article. None. None whatsoever.**

Something hit Tony in the back of the head, something soft, and it took a moment for him to register that. Once he had he blinked his eyes open, weary with the haze of sleep and sex so that for a moment he could only frown and register that he wasn't in his room. Ah, right, this was the bed he'd given to Loki to stay in, and though the god wasn't there he wasn't all that concerned, even though Pepper was looking down at him with a dangerously annoyed expression.

Tony buried his face sleepily in the pillow she'd thrown at him, eyes half-shut and smiling in some vague sort of way. "Heya Pep. Did you know gods can get drunk?"

The girl only smiled and rolled her eyes, then snatched the pillow away and ignored his whine of protest. "Fury's here. Loki's already talking to him, but you should go too. It sounded important."

"If he's gonna drop by this early in the morning he should've just stayed the night." Tony muttered bitterly, merely rolling up in the blanket. Fine, no pillow, he was too comfortable for that to matter right then, and could have lain there for hours, more relaxed than he'd been in years, if Pepper would stop badgering him.

"It's two in the afternoon."

"My previous statement still stands."

"Just be out there in ten minutes." Pepper tossed a bundle of clothing, formerly tucked under her arm, over his partially exposed face and turned to leave the room as he fumbled to get free of the blanket and shove it aside. "And I'm not cleaning those sheets."

Tony grinned despite himself as the door shut behind her. Okay, that was reasonable enough. It took him about five minutes to slip into the suit she'd brought him- would have preferred something more casual, really, but it was either that or walk out in just boxers, which would have been pretty fun if the joke wouldn't be wasted on Fury- and another five of pacing back and forth just to make them wait before he decided to head outside, more eager to see Loki than he was to bother Fury.

When he joined them the god was listening to the end of a rundown on the details of Hydra- Captain America, Nazis, magic cubes, all that good stuff. Fury had his back to Tony, but Loki sat up a little straighter when he spotted him and winced a moment after, hand flying almost subconsciously to his ribs.

Okay, Tony knew he should have felt more guilty about that than anything else, but he was suddenly having a very hard time keeping a straight face, especially when Fury asked if Loki was "all right" in some disinterested way.

"Yes, I'm fine. More or less, I still have a few strips of metal in my side, and believe it or not that sort of thing doesn't exactly feel wonderful." The god retorted calmly, turning his gaze back to the director.

"What? Strips of metal?" Okay, Tony hadn't noticed any stitches, but then again Loki had never _mentioned_ stitches. When did he get stitches? All they'd done was bandage him up, and okay, no fair- the god had hidden them from him with magic, hadn't he? "Might want to warn me next time. Might've ruined the moment if you tore those and started bleeding all over the bed, unless that sort of thing turns you on, but hey, I don't judge."

Fury didn't even deign to flatter these implications with a response, only waved for Tony to join them. "Sit down, Mr. Stark. You've got an assignment."

"Oh, I'm consulting on a professional level now? Awesome." Yup, he was still pretty miffed about that less-than-flattering title. "Whatever it is, forty two. Answer for everything. Or vodka, if Russians are involved in any way. Heck, throw it in even if they're not, couldn't hurt."

"We're going to re-open the Stark expo. Or, rather, you are." Fury wasn't even pretending to humor him, never had, though even he smirked at the baffled look the comment brought on. "Yes, Tony, I remember what happened last time. We're hoping to get something like that again, give us a legitimate excuse to move in on Schmidt."

"Since when did you guys need an excuse to do anything like that?" Tony protested. "Come on, just frame the guy for killing a prostitute or something. I'd rather not have to pay for that whole thing just to have some more psycho robots destroy it."

"Schmidt could have thousands of agents ready to bust him out of jail the moment we catch him. Or that company of his could just be some plot in the works. Either way, we need _your_ expo to tell us what's really going on." Fury retorted, something in his tone saying he thought that would have been a much better plan from the get-go.

Tony might have agreed, but when he remembered last night… nope, he liked the party idea, thank you very much. "So fine, I can re-announce the expo, say we were just cleaning up after Vanko's mess or whatever. Then what?"

"You make something to lure Schmidt's interest. When he takes it, you make sure it keeps an eye on whatever he's doing, and _doesn't_ work like it should." Fury explained simply, and Tony only shrugged, glanced past him and frowned at a number of files and folders on the table between the director and Loki. Not some last-minute plan, then, the guy probably had redesigns for the entire expo worked out there. "Think you can manage that?"

"I thought making stuff that didn't work right was SHIELD's job?" Tony took a seat next to Loki, couldn't hide a grin when he got a kiss on the cheek and soft murmur of "good morning" for it. Shame Hammer wasn't here. It'd almost be worth going along with this plan of Fury's just for a chance to make the guy even more uncomfortable in a public setting.

Fury seemed to be thinking along the same lines, for he tossed Tony a rolled up newspaper that was caught out of reflex and leaned back against the couch. "You two've made the front page. We've redirected about twenty calls this morning already, thought you might appreciate the effort."

In other words 'agree to help or we'll let the press and gay rights guys have their way with you'. Tony only raised an eyebrow and unfolded the paper, surprised to see that yeah, they were on the front page- not that he hadn't been plenty of times, but not for something simple as this- and for once he was annoyed with the press. How had they even gotten a picture of that? It must have been a moment after they'd kissed, Loki's hand lingering on his cheek, still barely an inch apart. Tony was smiling like some love-struck kid, and the god was giving him that look, as if he were the only thing in the world that mattered, or even existed for all he cared. Tony still wasn't quite sure how to respond to a look like that- he'd never seen anything like that, affection and outright _love_ when someone looked at him- and he wasn't all too pleased with it being made publicly accessible.

Underneath- thankfully this wasn't the main article, second half of the page- was a caption proclaiming "Iron Man The World's First Gay Superhero". Okay. "Please tell me the rest of this isn't about how me flirting with girls was suppressed homosexuality or something." Tony knew that was mostly reserved to tabloids and magazines, but the fact that they were discussing his love life was…

Not that surprising, actually. Superhero's were apparently more common than he'd thought- Fury kept reminding him how he wasn't so special, as if- but most of them didn't work for the government, and definitely weren't dating other guys. Big political stepping stone, there. Loki'd leaned over to get a better look at the article and raised an eyebrow, tracing a thin line of text with his forefinger. "'Eccentric millionaire Tony Stark has been seen with multiple woman over the years, but now the engineer is sharing his living spaces with another man. The acclaimed "superhero" has been a model to children around the globe…' This is ridiculous. They just start talking about how we're a groundbreaking couple. How does this count for news?"

"Eh, people get bored. Social issues and whatever." Did this even count as a social issue? Tony couldn't see how the gender of his partner affected the public at large, but apparently they considered it their business. Eh, whatever, maybe this'd help those pro-Prop 8 guys he wasn't going to sign their damn petitions.

"Fine, whatever. We'll play ball with you. Not in… bad context to make that metaphor in." Tony noted, setting the newspaper aside to avoid further comment. "State government's not going to let me set this thing up again after last time. Too many injury reports."

"We've booked you a space in Las Vegas. Construction will finish in a month- have something ready by then." Fury gave him a dangerous look as he stood that clearly said Tony shouldn't protest, but why would he? An excuse to take _Loki_ to Vegas? Oh, yeah, he'd put up with any amount of work for that option. Actually, he wasn't really sure why they hadn't done that yet, maybe they'd fly up a week early, see what fun could be had with the god of mischief in the city that pretty much defined debauchery. Yes, he liked the sound of that.

"Now what do you really want?" Loki wondered casually, ignoring it when Tony raised a curious eyebrow but shrugged it off. Yeah, there was definitely more to this- something a phone call couldn't handle. "And be quick with it, if you can. I'm too sore to deal with this."

"Show me everything you showed Schmidt, and what you told him too." Fury demanded. "That clever computer of yours didn't pick up very much."

"Not even going to ask how you already know that." Tony decided, making a mental note to beef up J.A.R.V.I.S.' security _again_. "But that camera records everything that goes on in this house."

"Schmidt would have noticed, I asked him to leave us be while we were down there. I didn't think you would mind." Loki cut in, a look that could have been almost sheepish on anybody else, barely even seemed apologetic from him. "Rest assured I didn't damage him."

"You hacked my- right. Magic. That makes me feel _really_ secure." Tony muttered, though he couldn't bring himself to do more than that. Yeah, Loki would probably take free run of his entire system if he saw fit, but there wasn't much he could do about it unless there was some anti-magic fireware he could torrent from Asgard.

"Whatever. 'Bout time I gave ya the grand tour. After all, you bothered to come all the way to see me and didn't even blockade my house and drug me in a donut shop this time. Just uh… don't go in the elevator."

* * *

><p>VVV<p>

"You been to a movie theater before?" Tony wondered, scrolling through one of those clever screens that would pop up wherever he so chose, in this case the edge of the piano he'd been pretending to play.

Until, at least, Loki decided he'd rather the man's attention be elsewhere and taken his reserved seat on his lap, wrapping his arms around his neck to twirl a lock of soft brown hair around a finger while contemplating, for a moment, what he wanted to do with this new position before pressing into a kiss. It had been almost cute, really, how Tony's tune faltered and then halted as his hands drew away, clutched at the god's hair in turn and returned the kiss, biting his lip affectionately for permission. Really, "cute" remained the best word, and Loki smirked slightly before parting his lips and allowing Tony's tongue through, enjoying the decidedly _human_ taste as they searched each other's mouths.

Loki was the one to draw away first-he still couldn't resist teasing him, playing with those subtle expressions he earned for the effort- and wondered casually if they had any work to do that day.

"Should probably decide on what we're bringing to the expo. My, expo, apparently." Tony shrugged, though his hands never pulled away and the words were interrupted by infrequent kisses to Loki's jaw, needing to crane his neck slightly to do so.

"A weapon, clearly. Isn't this a weapon's expo?" Loki wondered, planting a quick kiss to the cheek to show he appreciated the other's affection- of sorts.

"Stopped making weapons. The whole point of the Stark expo for me was to help the government find some other option- and, you know, my dad'd done it awhile ago, thought I'd revamp things- but I didn't make anything."

"Unfortunately, you're the one Schmidt is interested in." Loki pointed out, a vaguely apologetic smile meeting Tony's annoyed look. "And if you make a weapon he'll try to take it. When he does we can track him with it, but rest assured he won't bother with anything lacking in fire power." Not now, anyway. All he may have been interested in was the arc reactor, and he'd been given a core already, no matter that it was virtually useless far as the god could tell. Schmidt's curiosity should be sated, at the very least.

"Downside being he won't take anything I give him if I haven't shown how it works. Hence the point of an expo, the opening night or whatever. And I really don't want to put a working weapon in that man's hands." Tony muttered, pressing his forehead against the crook of Loki's neck and sighing slightly. Amused, he returned the gesture, breathing in the scent of treated hair, still an undertone of sweat from the night before. They could both use a shower, really. "Whatever. Haven't got much choice- maybe I can rig it to blow up or something. Does that acquaint to murder if it lights him on fire or something?"

"Oh, you could always blame it on Fury. I doubt they mean to leave Schmidt alive for long, anyway."

"That's comforting. All right, weapon it is. I'll think of something that looks more destructive than it is, or maybe I'll just make sure he can't actually power it. Any way your little voodoo magic could arrange that?"

"Yes, of course. You'll have to let me help you build it, but I'm sure that can be arranged." Loki promised, forgoing the option of teasing him for a little -voodoo magic, honestly- and tipping Tony's head back for another kiss rather than let him consider any sort of protest against this option. Working _with_ him on some weapon that would fall into Schmidt's use… oh, that could be very beneficial, not a chance to pass up. "Come on now, that's enough about work for the moment. We can build later, I'm bored."

This had led to Tony making suggestions for what they could do, scanning his computer for various popular attractions. The first being a movie, which Loki promptly turned down. "We can do that here, can't we?"

"Theater's got a bigger screen."

"It also has a bigger audience." Another kiss may have been enough to prove his point, but the trickster followed up by repositioning the way he was seated, smirking appreciatively when Tony sucked in a breath at the change. "And I can never pay attention to those things. Something else."

"Uh… all right. Shopping?" No, they both shook their heads at that one- Loki was content enough after that last trip, thank you very much. "Park'd bore you… Zoo? Ya know, never mind, I'd feel like a third wheel whenever we passed the animals."

Loki wasn't sure what a Zoo was, but the comment following it was enough to earn a warning look. "You can't even stand Fenrir, I'm not going anywhere with you that involves animals. And if you make so much as one comment about Sleipnir I'll turn your room into a stable."

"Maybe I'll take you somewhere foreign. I bet _you'd_ let me go to Venice." He didn't bother to elaborate, merely pulls up a few pictures of an absolutely stunning city, water pouring throughout.

Loki was far from stupid enough to assume everything in a travel guide was what he should actually expect from a city, but if any of Venice actually looked like what Tony was showing him it would be worth a visit, certainly. Midgardians had improved their architecture in the last few millennia, hadn't they?

But before he could voice an agreement his pocket began to sing at him, some frantic, high pitched tune Tony had input into the phone before first giving it to him. Loki sighed, remembering that after the developments of last night he could hardly abandon any call in to work. Delay it, certainly, but not long enough for Venice. He didn't shift his position-well, maybe a little, but nothing that couldn't be passed as necessary to retrieve his phone if Tony decided to call him out on more teasing- and set the cell on speaker so that he could put it aside without having to release his grip on Tony's hair any longer than necessary.

"Considering this isn't Hammer's ringtone, I'm going to assume I'm speaking with my employer. A good morning to you, Mr. Schmidt." He called, turning his head only briefly so he would be heard and smiling at Tony's raised eyebrow. The man only shrugged then and threw aside the screen he'd pulled up with some reluctance, Venice flying off the table and into some holographic trash bin.

"Good morning, Mr. Lauson." The veiled accent was unmistakable, the uncaring tone that made each word sound sarcastic- an admirable effort, but Loki doubted he would ever _quite_ perfect it. Potential, certainly, maybe he should offer lessons. "I trust you slept well?"

"Oh, _very_ well, thank you." The god assured casually, ignoring Tony's flirtatious wink. "I'm to come into the office, then? I thought Hammer had plenty of designs to fail at building already."

"Not quite. Get to the building, you will be directed from there." Schmidt was definitely a man more than used to having his orders obeyed, probably assumed he didn't even need to add a time-limit. Likely he expected "Luke" to rush over at his command.

"Yes, of course, I'll be there in about an hour." Loki promised, never-mind the twenty five minute drive was all it took. "Tony and I have to shower."

"No later." The former soldier ordered without so much as missing a beat, cutting his connection a moment before the god reached over to do the same.

"Just to confirm, you said Tony _and_ I, right?" Tony wondered as the weight left his lap, Loki re-pocketing his phone as he rose to his feet, perfectly straight-faced. "Shower. Together."

"Well, if that's all you want to do, anyway," came the reply. His lover responded to a mostly blank stare with an amused smirk before bending down and kissing him again, a tongue passing over his lips to make his purpose clear, if it hadn't been already.

"You're hurt." He protested, a hand reaching out to touch his injured side carefully, feeling the unsteady pattern of the stitches through his shirt. "And I doubt the whole drunken sex thing really helped all that much."

"Oh, don't worry, I can be _very_ creative. I'll manage." Loki grinned at the look this earned him and moved Tony's hand away, kissed him once more, quickly. "Now come along, I'll be late for work."

* * *

><p>It took much longer to shower than was at all necessary, but being punctual for Schmidt's sake was the least of his concerns. Loki had meant to calm Tony's worries about his injuries by focusing on the other, in this case a very teasing massage, but he'd quickly caught on and decided to reverse their positions. The massage had turned into much more, and before long work was the last thing on either of their minds.<p>

Now, though, Loki knew a cab would get him to the building well past the time he'd been allotted, and if ten minutes was fine a half hour or more certainly would not be. It was hard to care, though. The god hadn't been this relaxed in a very long time- muscles tense from injury and strain were loose, and though it followed him if he moved too sharply the ever-present pain had vanished completely for the first time. So he was finding it very hard to be in a hurry, and was complacent enough that when Pepper offered him a ride before Tony could so much as open his mouth he accepted without complaint.

"You can work on that project." She retorted when Tony whined, and slammed the front door on him while Loki gave an amused wave from outside.

"That wasn't very nice." He pointed out with a playful smirk that didn't so much as make her blink, only raise an eyebrow and motion for him to head down the walk. "You know he does get _so_ attached, it's mean to tease."

"I'm giving him a chance at retaining the feeling in his legs." She gave him a pointed look and Loki wondered if maybe they were louder in the shower than they'd thought. Well, she'd probably heard much worse working with Stark, no use denying anything. The god merely shrugged, anything but embarrassment showing in the smile he gave instead of a response.

A smile that quickly took on a hint of disbelief, an amused sort of shock at the lack of verbal restraint the girl showed next. "He'll never turn you down, so I hope _you_ remember that he's not a god like you are. If you can't tell when he's exhausted or whatever-"

"I'm hardly new to being with mortals, Pepper." Loki assured, his wit failing him for a moment before he could make any sort of reply. Woman simply didn't… speak about things like this. Oh, he'd heard this sort of conversation more times than he could count in the halls of Asgard, in the medical room or the baths after a battle- but _always_ after the girls had left. "As I'm sure you've read. Now, should we be on our way, or am I going to have to develop the ability to drive in the next few minutes? I'm fairly certain it would ruin this plan for me to teleport onto Lernae's doorstep."

VVV

"Probably." Pepper agreed, smiling slyly despite herself. She'd managed to make the Norse God of Mischief uncomfortable, that was probably a pretty uncommon thing. Of course she wasn't exactly playing fair, but she needed to confirm something- and the way Loki was responding to her so-called "warnings" did just that.

To be safe she waited to say anything else until they were in her car- a gift from Tony, and maybe she shouldn't have accepted it, but it _was_ very nice and he never took no for an answer anyway- and on their way to bring up her point in all this. "I may not be very knowledgeable when it comes to Norse mythology, but I know enough about Vikings to know that I could probably inject vodka straight into your bloodstream and you'd barely be tipsy."

Loki glanced up at the comment with an odd look, studying her in a way she didn't really like. It was a lot easier to be comfortable around him after so long knowing each other, especially since he was now dating Tony and she'd helped keep him alive more than once, but even so she couldn't shake the feeling that he was always thinking of the best way to _use_ her. Whether to get closer to Tony-hardly a problem now- or to kill her and leave her in some ditch on the side of the road she could never tell, but she knew well enough that if it wouldn't devastate Tony she would insist he leave them alone and never come back.

Assuming she was flattering herself into thinking he would listen to her. Pepper had been an integral part of Tony Stark's life for many years now, she knew when her advice or orders were falling on deaf ears- and Loki was a prime example of disregarding everything he wasn't absolutely interested in at the time being. But she could try, anyway, and she had seen before that if they were talking for Tony's sake the god would be willing to listen. _The god._ She couldn't get used to thinking of the person beside her as a _god_, even if he was every bit as godlike in aura as anything could be. Pepper had seen him feverish, injured, exhausted, confused, and lost more than once. That didn't matter, he could still seem less-or more- than human in those circumstances.

But there was no way she could think of him as a god after that morning. She always arrived at Tony's house early- so early people tended to think they lived together, which had been offered more than once- and been in the middle of preparing his schedule for the day when Fury showed up at the door demanding to talk to the boys as soon as possible. She sent him into the main living room to wait, and hadn't even needed to think twice about where she would find them.

The door to Loki's room was ajar, and she'd meant to stop and knock before so much as glancing inside, but something caught her eye before she could. Tony was still fast asleep, absolutely dead to the world, but the god had apparently just woken up, and was smiling down at the other man with an unbelievable amount of sincerity. Pepper'd almost been embarrassed, frozen on the spot and watched Loki bend down and give Tony an affectionate kiss, one hand stroking his ruffled hair as he turned slightly in his sleep, mouth moving with some unspoken words that brought that look back to Loki's eyes.

Nevermind that they were both undressed, the blanket just barely covering their waists. Pepper couldn't care less about that- if she were to ever feel guilty for walking in on Tony she'd never have been able to accept this job. But what _did_ feel like an invasion of privacy was seeing such raw… _love-_ in a god especially. So she'd cleared her throat and tried not to let her voice stray away from the calm and professional, told Loki that Fury was waiting in the other room and she would wake Tony up when they needed him. This ended up not being for another two hours, and Pepper was sure Loki had taken his time for the purpose of letting the other man sleep- though he'd probably had a bit of fun luring his conversation with SHIELD's director wherever he so pleased, too.

So when Tony had asked her if she knew that gods could get drunk of _course_ she was suspicious, and more than a little annoyed, and if she was not-so-subtly calling Loki out on his lie then it was no more than he deserved.

He was very good at not looking like an idiot even with one eyebrow raised above the other, which normally just came off as infuriating or melodramatic. But not with him, here it carried a warning, and some sophisticated sort of _don't fuck with me_ look. "I'm also fairly sure I would die, so I hope you aren't planning to attempt that any time soon."

"Not unless I have to to prove to Tony that you were perfectly sober all last night." Pepper retorts, and can only gauge the meaning of his frown through a side-long glance with the help of the rear-view mirror. Distracted driving in a sports car down a California highway was probably not the best idea, but seeing as she had a god who could probably turn the entire street into cottony, collision-absorbing fluff sitting in the passenger seat she wasn't too concerned. "He'll think he took advantage of you, even if you went after him again today."

"You really _are_ crude when you want to be." Loki noted dryly, observing her with an odd, calculating look for a five-second count before shrugging and turning to look curiously out the window.

"I work for Tony." Pepper deadpanned, and he shrugged to concede the point. "If you care about him you have to show it. And be _sober_ when you do. Tony's… not used to affection. He thinks he doesn't deserve it; no matter how obvious it is to everyone else that you're head-over-heels for him, he's not going to be able to believe it."

"It's obvious that I'm _what_?" He looked a little defensive, which was probably a lot better than either cold or warning, and only made it even clearer to Pepper that even if his intentions might have been anything but good, he wasn't _just_ using Tony. The problem was bringing that up and telling him to _admit it_ without getting him angry.

So better just to ignore that last comment and continue on, staring stoically out the window except to check for a clear lane before moving over, closer to the off-ramp. "I'm his assistant. It's my job to take care of Tony, and that includes making sure nobody toys with him. I may not be able to do much, you could probably kill me now and just blame it on a car crash and anybody would believe you- but if you hurt him I will make _sure_ you pay for it."

How? No idea, but she meant every word, and an amused smirk form Loki said he knew it, and she resisted the urge to gulp and maybe turn on the radio to divert the conversation away. He wasn't going to hurt her, for the moment anyway. There was a pause in which the god's face gave absolutely nothing away, and when he spoke there wasn't a hint of personality behind it. "I won't hurt him. I simple prefer from seeming too… attached, and he was being far too cautious. Anyway, he'd have thought he would hurt me if not for the alcohol, he really is paranoid."

Oh god, he was _nervous_. Pepper almost wanted to laugh, because the idea of a Norse god being _nervous_ was almost unprecedented- but the desire died down almost immediately. Loki actually looked a little shy, wasn't even turning away from the window, though there was something tense in the way he held himself that warned her against pursuing the topic much further. What, was he worried Tony would reject him? That was impossible- there was no way the god of lying wouldn't be able to detect it when someone was as gaga for him as Tony was. Of course the man was well known for screwing up relationships, but then again the god probably wasn't the best at it either. She was two seconds away from just telling him to get over it so they could be bad at dating together, and let the combined force of their angst and daddy issues see them through whatever idiotic self-worth issues they both were so keen to harbor.

But Tony hadn't come to her, drunk and sobbing that he wasn't good enough and _please, pepper, what do I do?_ Not like he had every other time he'd tried something as dangerous as a relationship, worst of all when they'd put forth the effort themselves- and he'd flinched away from her more and more until returning every ounce of passion she showed for him that night after they had first found Loki.

She'd known, then, that it would never work.

Lernae's building was pulling into view- a towering, pristine silver and grey thing with sharpened angles and a harsh look- and only ten minutes, maybe, after the time Loki'd promised to be here. He didn't seem in any rush regardless, and when she pulled up in front of the building he took his time getting out of the car. Before he had Pepper stopped him, not even hesitating before catching his wrist as it was about to vanish out the door.

"Show me you're strong enough." Was all she said before letting go and turning back to the street, driving away the moment the door was closed without bothering to look back.

VVV

Loki wasted another moment or two frowning after the car and the girl in it as both peeled off, leaving him to stand in annoyance in front of Schmidt's company and wonder when mortals had gotten so… No, arrogant wasn't the word, at least not in Pepper's case, but _comfortable_, and some might say the two were the same- certainly no self respecting god would allow themselves to be lectured by a mortal woman. Especially not on so laughable a subject as the feelings of the god's lover. He was more than accomplished in dealing with that sort of thing, did she really think he wasn't entirely aware of how to treat a man so much like himself in a way that would keep him safe?

No. That was the wrong word. "Safe" was straying into dangerous territory, and Loki brushed the thought aside with practiced ease before turning calmly into his workplace. A few people shot him nervous looks, no doubt owing to his inappropriate attire. He still had that suit Tony had insisted he buy, but he'd not yet had an occasion to bother wearing it, throwing on something geared more towards when he returned home than the actual business he had to deal with today. Though Kathy- odd that she always seemed to be working when he arrived, probably ensured it- was stealing looks at his dark black, skin-tight jeans and the skin exposed by a few undone buttons on his silk grey shirt. Almost as if she really didn't think he would catch her doing it, but the girl was no longer much concern of his and he spared her only a brief glance as he passed on his way to the elevator.

That is, until she called for him to wait, and Loki's amusement began to brim on annoyance. If this weren't work-related he would have to do something about the girl, unless she assumed last night hadn't made it very clear that he was far from available. "Um, Mr. Hammer is waiting for you in the company parking lot, Luke."

She brushed something aside as he approached to listen, and he saw with some amusement the edge of a newspaper sticking out from under her keyboard. Little doubt as to which article she was so interested in. "Very well. I'll meet him there."

Loki strolled past her, not bothering to explain why he already knew well enough where to go- he knew the entire building's layout by now, it hardly took much. He was curious, of course, as to why he was being called into the parking garage at all, but he figured whether for good or bad he would be getting some break in the monotony of his infrequent visits, anyway. The requests were always the same, and if he'd had to sit through another consultation with the overbearing, dull, and now highly uncomfortable engineer Loki might have just forgone SHIELD's concerns and destroyed the place.

He passed through the Spartan, high-ceilinged halls of the ground floor, skimmed his eyes over the door marked "Power: Do Not Enter", which he knew really lead to some post-development weapons such as the wand he'd stolen, and only stopped to hold a brief discussion with some security guard who didn't seem to think he should be there. The man ended up deciding that he was _very_ exhausted and slumping against the wall to rest, just within view of the security camera- Loki was rather annoyed about the delay, after all.

He considered hesitating to scrounge the contents of one room he hadn't yet searched quite thoroughly- seemingly purposeless, but upon a very minor search locked three different ways and trapped with about eight different electronic means that could only be released via a fourth lock, which only three tied into at all. Therefore five had to merely be avoided-assuming one didn't have the luck of performing magic and simply disengaging the entire display- based on experience. Something _very_ interesting was inside that room, and yet Loki knew well enough that if he did enter he would be caught up with whatever he found inside, and best search it when he could allow due time to enjoy himself.

The train of thought finished its journey within the brief amount of time it took to pay the door a passing glance, and then the god was out the hall and into the company lot, bottom floor- typically only used for maintenance crew or delivery. In this instance, a limousine with blacked-over windows and a few armored bodyguards to match. Hammer was eyeing said men nervously, pacing back and forth but never within their direct sight- they seemed to be staring forward, didn't so much as blink when Loki walked in, though he raised an eyebrow and tipped his head sarcastically in their direction- and seemed almost relieved to see his so-called employee appear.

"Luke. You're uh… you're late." The words died in his throat, as if he wasn't sure why he was even bothering to say it, and Loki watched him curiously. Schmidt must have spoken to him, and whatever he'd said seemed to have had quite an impact. Such a shame to have missed the conversation. "Listen, we've got some work for you to do. Oh, nothing big, just uh… Can't do it here type stuff."

The laugh sounded even dryer than usual, and he cleared his throat and went fishing in his pockets for something, the left staying there while the right drew out a thick black cloth. A blindfold. "Ridiculous, I know. But hey, the higher ups insist, and who am I t-"

"Shame, I'd almost thought you were intelligent for a moment." Loki took the blindfold and drew it around his own eyes tight before securing it in the back, taking care that he really couldn't see-at least not by physical means- before lowering his hands. It seemed he was about to find out where Schmidt was operating from, though of course they had no idea he would be finding anything out.

Rough hands clasped him on the shoulders, and he felt someone patting the back of his head harshly. The bodyguards, clearly finding his tying of the blindfold satisfactory and moving to release him, though not before each got a shock that brought a muffled sound of pain and surprise. Loki'd have smirked at them, but he couldn't see their reactions right now and it didn't seem worth the effort to antagonize them blindly, so he allowed himself to be steered towards the car as Hammer cleared his throat not far to his right.

"Right. Can we not be so rough, please? God, he's not going to _do_ anything." There was something sincere in the plea, though it's certainly not the indignant concern. Fear, as if he expected Loki to resent the treatment and didn't like his own chances if he did.

And maybe he would. It was hard, so hard, not to kill Hammer- and yet he only smirked and sat obediently inside the car when prodded to do so, tipped his head back casually and thought. _Why_ did he hate the man so much? Because he was a simpering idiot, certainly, but no worse than the gossiping bitches in Asgard and no more condescending than that agent Coulson. But though he was amusing enough, distracting certainly, there was always a part of Loki that found it hard not to rip him apart. That part was also the one urging this meeting to end as quickly as possible despite how much worth could come of it, anything so he could get back to the mansion, to Tony, soon. Whether that was the irrational or the rational voice of his mind he was unsure, but he liked to believe the former- he still had his pride, after all, and Pepper's lecture skimmed through his mind.

However, he was also getting the chance to do some real work, and how _lovely_ that SHIELD didn't know well enough to watch in on it. Loki could do what he wanted, with none the wiser but the two men who expected he was on their side anyway, and certainly wouldn't be all that surprised if he acted as such.

* * *

><p>They were ridiculously thorough when they actually reached the building, actually bothered to shove a bag of some sort over Loki's head and hold his arms behind his back as they shoved him forward. As if he hadn't already plotted out the entire path along the way. He made no effort to respond to their threats, which none of them seemed to like. Hammer hung back, verbally at least, so it was too much trouble to be bothered gauging his reaction to all this.<p>

"I wonder what might happen if somebody were to walk by right now." Loki mused, knowing full well that they were both underground and locked out of the public eye by the multiple DNA recognition scanners his escorts had each endured. "I must look like a hostage. Or a young man with interesting tastes, the handcuffs would do nicely for that."

Not to mention the outfit. He probably looked like a refuge from a gay bar, which didn't sound like all that bad of a concept, really, and Loki drifted of curiously to run over the possibilities of this. It wouldn't be that hard to convince Tony to drop by one, he was sure. "You are all rather silent. We're not already in a meeting now, are we? That would be awkward. If we are, a very apologetic hello to my formerly mysterious employer."

"Move." One man demanded gruffly, seeming to know better than to do more than increase his grip on Loki's shoulders and give him a light shove forward. "You're late already."

"Unfortunately I was called in at a bad time." The god protested, which was the truth well enough, not even bothering to keep a mocking grin they couldn't see from twitching at his lips. "Tony can last much longer than I thought, considering the circumstances. Maybe he's not new to shower-"

Now one of them did hit him on the back of the head, probably as discomforted by the topic as Hammer was, and Loki's breath came out in a hiss. He couldn't let that pass, on principle alone, and made a mental note to remember which man had done that to him. "I said quiet."

"You said 'move', actually, and I'm quite capable of talking while I do that." He thought about attaching another innuendo to this, decided against it. "And let's not fool ourselves into pretending there's anybody else here to be bothered by all my talking."

"Quiet." Was the only answer he got. Clearly they were doing their best not to talk any more than possible, which was making it very difficult for Loki to pinpoint what was off about their speech- though he had some ideas.

"Quiet is boring. I like the sound of my own voice, you'll have to forgive me. Of course, I can do much more interesting things than talk. Would you like me to sing?" The sarcasm was largely less interesting simply because the upbeat smirk that followed it went unnoticed, but he was enjoying himself nonetheless. "I have a lovely voice."

That part was true, though even if by some miracle they had agreed Loki was never going to sing in front of Hammer or his bodyguards. Music, he knew, was far too personal to waste on a buffoon like him. "I'm going to take your increasingly frustrated silence as a 'no' then. Schmidt should really consider getting you all some lessons on etiquette, it would certainly improve company moral. Though I doubt Justin would stop shaking in his boots even if you all suddenly broke into a chorus of modern folk music."

It was far too _easy_. All he had to do was let his voice lilt just the right way, a touch of mocking sing-song or perhaps blatant sarcasm at just the right moments, and the men were gripping his shoulder so hard it nearly hurt. Nearly. One gave him a rough shake and made probably the worst mistake he could possibly have ventured to make, yet of course it was the very thing Loki had been striving to hear.

A curse in German, which he'd recently discovered was no longer Prussia. Shame. Schmidt was still recruiting men from his home country, either a sense of attachment or proof he had been "back from the dead", so to speak, far longer than they were letting themselves think. Long enough to formulate and transfer an army, and certainly that's what they were. He could have hired anybody if he'd merely wanted bodyguards, or engineers. He was trying to reform Hydra, which was… not all that unfavorable, really. Best keep this from SHIELD, until he'd seen if Schmidt was worth his while, at the very least. Combining this technology with whatever Tony was making for Vegas, not to mention manpower and pre-prepared influence, would make his job very easy indeed.

"Take the bag off his head." Hammer didn't sound at all forceful, or intimidating, but apparently the fact that he'd made an actual order rather than some feigned concern was enough to surprise the henchmen into doing as they were asked.

The cloth came away with a rough tug that brought some hair with it-no doubt intentional, and Loki was going to remember that, too. He blew a few loose strands out of his face, seemed useless with the blindfold still in place and really, why had they bothered with the mask too? Probably tired of his condescending looks. "I do believe we're in the building now, so forgive me if I've given up caring for your ridiculous precautions."

All the warning he gave before ripping the blindfold away carelessly, letting the formerly taut, powerful fabric fall to the ground with nothing but a bored smirk for the glares of the bodyguards. That quickly turned into a surprised look of approval as he took in his surroundings and decided that yes, Schmidt could be _very_ useful.

They seemed to be in a building with no purpose other than the design and creation of weaponry and the like. There were quite a few men hustling around as quickly as they could manage, others inspecting or testing towering guns, drills, missiles, and one or two devices with an unclear purpose. Deadly, judging by the careful way a researcher was poking at one of them. Most of them were devoid of power, yet one or two glowed with the same shimmering blue light that had been running the wand he stole. And that cube.

"So good of you to join us." Schmidt really was unusual- he'd managed to approach without Loki noticing until a moment before he spoke, and the surprise at his voice wasn't altogether feigned. "You are late."

"Glad you noticed." Loki answered calmly, turning to address his employer and raising an eyebrow at the uniform he had on- very militaristic, and rather dark as well. Intimidating, he supposed, if you were the sort to be intimidated. "You called me for a reason."

"Glad you noticed." The reply was completely deadpanned, and yet Loki almost wanted to grin. Oh, yes, he was going to be _very _fun. "Hammer."

"Oh, uh, right." Hammer had been starring at the machines with unmistakable lust, and not grinning became even more difficult. Clearly he'd never been admitted to the facility before, either. "Tony's got a heart of gold, you know, never ceases to amaze me… We want it." Something blunt, a cold attempt at a threat that was hardly frightening, but suited the man better than false friendship.

"The reactor." Out of the question, absolutely. Loki was not going to kill Tony for their sakes, he would find some other way to make this world his if that was the price he had to pay.

"See, this is why I like you." Hammer's tone implied this wasn't the case by any definition, but the sickly sweet smile only faltered via a slight twitch of the lip. "I mean, we think so _alike_… I, _we_, want the old reactor. We're going to use it for a power source that'll make everything in that core you gave us look like whale oil."

"So you can run all these machines?" Well, that was certainly less dangerous, and yet Loki was hesitant all the same. He ran an appreciative hand over the base of the nearest missile- cold, tense, lithe with power and _beautiful_. "None of the designs I brought you have helped with this?"

"Not quite." Schmidt came up beside him, his gloved finger running a much briefer path over the casing before being pulled away for inspection, free of dust or scratched paint, the weapons were all perfectly oiled and clean. The man's face was a mask (which might very well have had something to do with the fact that it was _literally_ a mask) and yet Loki could sense that this was a man who appreciated that beauty as well. "We cannot afford to take risks with this venture, Lauson. You understand that."

"Of course I do. The core should be enough, should it not? That's what generates the power." He didn't wait for either of them to respond, expecting he would dislike whatever they had

* * *

><p>u want the public to see and bring it to Las Vegas in a month. Tony's about to announce a weapon's exposition to make up for the failure of the last one. I'm sure you can be bothered to join us."<p>

Schmidt remained perfectly straight-faced, but Hammer perked up eagerly, though he did a rush job of turning that into polite confusion. "Tony's… restarting the expo? Is he- you know, making anything?"

"Of course. He has to start the thing off somehow, said the Iron Man suit's nothing new. I convinced him to pull off something a bit more… flashy." Loki smirked smugly, eyes locked on the engineer's employer and not the man himself. "How I convinced him is up to you, but I won't go into detail. At my request Lernae has a slot as well, whenever you'd like that slot to be."

Hammer looks like he's going to dissolve into a series of meaningless gratitudes, but Schmidt cuts him off blandly. "You will hear from me what time we want. And keep me updated on Stark's progress with his own weapon." Loki nodded, keeping the gesture as unmocking as his pride would allow. "Good. Now come, you like these machines, yes?"

"Oh, very much." A bit of sincerity never hurt- lies didn't work if the man delivering the refused to indulge in the truth. "I would love for a look at them."

"And you shall have it." Schmidt started to walk off, beckoning grandly for the both of them to follow. "My head researchers will instruct you on what to do, and you will inform them of any mistakes you find within Stark's designs or those of our own creation. Change nothing yourself."

Loki was more than happy to comply- what use would he be in the actual engineering without being allowed to show his magic, anyway?- and followed with no more reply than an over-eager smirk.

* * *

><p>By the time he returned home- magically, teleporting into the Stark household was becoming a much easier task as he recovered, though it caused more of a strain than he'd expected- Loki's mouth tasted of oil and his head was swimming with any number of possibilities. Of course he'd cleaned up, with the use of a shower on site as opposed to the magical alternative which was in fact his preference, yet he still felt rather as if he'd been doused in a vat of grease and rocket fuel. Not altogether a bad feeling, he could see why Tony spent so much time tinkering away in that lab of his.<p>

And yet he was tired of work, ready to unwind with the engineer's company. For that purpose he ensured that he would appear in the workshop, and yet was disappointed to find nobody present save himself and J.A.R.V.I.S., who had flickered the lights on automatically but frozen in the process halfway through.

"Mr. Stark is not here, Mr. Loki." The computer still insisted on calling him that, though they'd long ago learned his last name, and yet the god found he preferred it. Who knew, maybe it sensed his dislike for his proper surname- it wouldn't have surprised him considering the personality it boasted.

"So I see. Is he not home?" One of the suits was missing, and Loki found himself frowning with a tinge of annoyance and a bit of concern as well. If Tony had been called out on some life-threatening mission and not bothered to call him he was going to be _very_ annoyed.

"Security cameras say he is not, sir."

He let out a deep sigh of frustration. "Is he in any danger?"

"No, sir, he appears to be with Mr. Rhodes."

Ah, well, James would keep him out of too much trouble, at least. Loki let out a sigh of resignation and made his way for the stairs after another moment of pouting. "Very well. Thank you, JARVIS."

"Of course, sir." The computer replied with something akin to amusement, probably registering his annoyance and interpreting the reason behind it. "Shall I contact him and request he return home?"

"No, I should think not. I could do with the rest." He decided, giving the question some serious thought before coming to this response. Well, at the very least he could get some sleep, even if he rather felt his outfit was going to waste.

**A/N: Ta da. ._. I hope this was worth the wait, and I'm sorry it took so long to post. I went nuts baking for a superbowl party, and for the majority of the week I was playing away in my kitchen. For those of you who skipped chapter fourteen, especially a long wait- so sorry for that. (Charmaine, if you show this to any more boys from school please **_**warn them about that part this time.**_**) **

**The next chapter's something I've been dying to write for the longest time. Pretty much everything after this point, actually, so I hope you all enjoy it!:) Reviews and ratings are always appreciated. (I'd type a little heart to follow that, but all that shows up is the 3 because of 's formatting style, and then it just looks silly.)**


	16. Ring Around The Rosie

**A/N: Okay, this chapter was originally going to be up on Sunday night, but my teachers decided not to be evil little butt-monkeys and I had no homework, so that gave me plenty of time to type.**

**If you haven't assumed as much by my use of the term "butt-monkeys", this is a vaguely silly chapter, the picture which inspired it being rather silly itself. Probably better to check it out once you've finished reading. (.com/?qh=§ion=&q=loki+and+tony#/d46w3vn)**

**Disclaimer: I haven't been arrested yet, even though I forgot this last time. Gasp. I shall continue to fight the law and leave it to this minimal statement. (-Shifty eyes-)**

It shouldn't have been legal to hurt this much.

It felt like there was something inside Tony trying to beat its way out, slamming into the walls of his mind until it felt like his head would crack or his bones would break. He was so sore, so damn sore, that he couldn't believe it, and every movement just made it worse, every sound or light or _whatever_ that he became conscious of as he awoke.

He couldn't remember anything of the night before. He was in the Iron Man suit- _why_ was he in the suit?- and seemed to have fallen asleep curled up underneath the piano, which was practically split in two and holding the unmistakable indentation of a metal fist in a few places where it had merely been bent in. He'd have to throw it out, but that didn't really matter- the thing reminded him too much of Obie anyway, he'd been meaning to ditch it for awhile. Now his subconscious could stop coming up with excuses, anyway.

Drunk, that much was obvious, and J.A.R.V.I.S. could probably show him a few recordings of what exactly he'd been up to. Right now, however, he thought it might be a better idea not to do that. Ugh, this hurt so fucking _much_. Tony thought wistfully of the nearby kitchen and a waiting cup of coffee- his computer would have started that the moment he woke up- and nurtured the possibility of curling up with Loki for some hang-over remedying. That sounded good, gods probably had all sorts of magic to deal with this stuff anyway, they probably woke up feeling much worse all the time considering the whole Viking thi-

_Moooooo_.

Tony froze, halfway to his feet. Call him crazy, but he was pretty sure he hadn't programmed the suit to make that sort of sound when he moved. "J.A.R.V.I.S.?" He called warily, received only a sarcastic reply that he might consider turning around to survey the extent of his own damage.

He was wary to do it, but Tony turned and managed to keep from either laughing or screaming and falling back against the piano. Probably because he wasn't really sure which he would rather do- they were equally appealing, so maybe he should try both at once. He'd probably run out of air, though, but how were you supposed to think something like that when oh my god there was a _fucking bull in his house_.

A _huge_ bull. Like, whoever wrote about Babe the bull and Paul Bunyon probably came across this guy's parents and thought "holy fuck can bulls _get_ that big?" Its horns could have gored him straight through the armor, and drunk as he was there was no way he'd fly out of the way in time, so it was probably a good thing he hadn't screamed. Huge horns. Long and outward, white and sharp. Tony didn't know or even _like_ animals, but even he could appreciate that this was a damn fine bull. No dirt or muck, no spots on a clear white flank that was rippling with muscle. Oh god. That thing was practically _all muscle_ and _how was that even possible._

There should be some regulations on nature, because that just… no, nope, Tony was too drunk and tired for something like that to be _allowed to exist_. It was chewing-cud, or whatever it was called, unless he'd decided to give it gum halfway through the night- and looking straight at him, completely calm. Its tail twitched, once or twice. The thing probably knew it could rip him apart in seconds, and must have gotten used to that suit sometime either that morning or the night before, or else hell, maybe bulls were used to men in armored metal suits. He had certainly flown over more than enough farms, right?

"So. Hey. Uh… bull, in my living room. You guys can't walk down stairs, can you?" There was no way that guy would fit out the door, or even in his elevator, unless he walked it all the way to the roof and put it through the freight. Still, he'd half to knock out like, eight walls and doors to manage that. If he could get it down to the garage he'd be fine though, but the bull only continued chewing and mooed dumbly.

"I'm afraid that is not the case, Mr. Stark." J.A.R.V.I.S. was way too amused by all of this. Okay, the British accent was being disabled, he would find a way. It wasn't fair that he had to keep waking up to this level of snark when he was by no means coherent enough to reply in kind.

"Fine. Uh… I need… Pepper!" Please let her be home please let her be home please let her be home _why was there a __**bull**__ in his house._

"Tony?" Thank god. "We're in the kitchen, get up here. We have coffee."

We? Right, Loki. Okay, remember Loki, that made things better. It was a lot easier to keep calm when Tony remembered that he was actually living with a steady partner who he hadn't chased off or fucked over (in the figurative sense, at least) after the first few days. And knowing that was Loki, that he was going to wake up and be with Loki when this sort of thing happened, made it much easier to call out an unsteady "okay", and slink out of the room.

What were you supposed to do with bulls? Tony kept eye contact with the thing the entire time, and it didn't start and charge him (oh my god he was wearing red oh my god, that had to be an urban legend please) so okay, maybe that was the right thing. He could almost swear J.A.R.V.I.S. was laughing as he rushed up the stairs and nearly fell over, drunkenly glaring down the cabinet that was _not_ there the day before, he could attest to that with pictures or… or… something.

"Loki, babe, what's the proper context for two-ton cattle in the living room?" Tony glanced back over his shoulder as he made his way into the kitchen, though the bull was well out of sight. Oh, wow, that might not even be an exaggeration. He might have guessed _under_ the thing's weight, he had no idea how much a bull that was almost up to his shoulders _in the suit_ could possibly weigh. _Bulls should not be that big._ Nothing should be that big, it was like, over five feet tall. What even _was_ that.

"I am too hungover for you to even think the word 'babe' in my presence right now, Tony." That was definitely not Loki, and normally Tony would have been glad or relieved at least to see Rhodey in his kitchen-drinking seltzer water and cradling the war machine helmet in the crook of his arm, so at least he hadn't been drinking and apparently cattle ranchering alone- but he couldn't hide a frown when he saw the god wasn't present at all. Oh, there was coffee though. That was a little bit better.

Tony took a thick swallow from that cup and sighed gratefully, causing Pepper to roll her eyes unsympathetically. "I'm thinking it now, just so you know. It's running through my head, non stop. Now that you've put the idea there it's just not going away- this is nobody's fault but your own."

"That probably has something to do with the fact that you were crying on my shoulder half the night about how you weren't good enough for Loki." Rhodey pointed out dryly, apparently knowing exactly what was on his mind for once. Pepper, too, though that wasn't so uncommon from her.

Oh god, Loki was turning him into an open book. Nope, dangerous territory, next thing you know he'll be developing dangerous things like _feelings_ and making googly eyes at the god whenever they were together in public. Oh, hey, he already did that, didn't he. Fuck. "Duly noted. Could somebody explain the bull from hell now?"

"Apparently," Pepper was using her "you-fucked-up-and-I-am-not-happy-with-you" voice again. Tony did not like that voice, nor the fact that he apparently merited its use so often that he was starting to recognize the exact way she placed her hands and the angle of her eyebrows that indicated it was about to lead into a lecture, "you and James decided it would be a good idea to go drinking in the _suits_."

She turned an accusing glare on Rhodey, who shrugged sheepishly and drowned back a little more of his seltzer water. "You wanted to run a patrol or something to make sure Schmidt's bots weren't spying on you, or SHIELD, I think. You were pretty drunk already when you called me up- I only tagged along so you wouldn't get yourself killed."

Yup, sounded like something he would do. Actually, it sounded pretty damn _tame_ by his standards, and patrolling the city should not end up with bulls the size of one of his cars (no bigger, _muchmuchmuch_ bigger) in the piano room. Which was now going to need a new name, because they'd destroyed the piano. "And what, we found out Hydra was planning to take over the world with an overdose of methane and decided we had to capture his livestock to counteract the effort?" Why, why _why_ was he drunk enough for that to have almost sounded reasonable for a moment? God. He needed coffee- glanced down at his almost empty cup and drained the remainder to no avail- or… _more_ coffee.

"No. We stopped at a bar after we saw there was nothing to worry about." Not good. Though it was almost worth the blinding headache and the cow in his house just to imagine the bartender's reaction when two men in metal suits walked in and sat down to drink. Then again, it only made it much, much worse when he saw the look Pepper was giving him and remembered the attempts they'd been making to keep him away from alcohol.

Pepper, Rhodey, Loki. The only three people he really gave a damn about, and he'd pretty much thrown their advice back in their faces and hell, why not fuck up his own house while he was at it? Pepper'd really liked that piano. "And let me guess, you revealed that it was your life-long dream to become a cattle rancher."

"Wrong again." Rhodey snapped, headache apparently all the worse for wear thanks to Tony's half-drunken rambling, which sounded exactly the same as his sober rambling. "Are you going to stop interrupting or can I get on with it?"

"You know, that means you'd only keep talking if I didn't stop interrupting." Tony pointed out, reaching to get himself more coffee and wincing at the pain in his head. Pepper rolled her eyes at him, and he frowned defensively. "What? He worded it weird. I'm just helping him form better ultimatums. Watch him be interrogating some Russian spy and oops, we just gave Alaska back because he gave them two choices that were both bad for us."

Rhodey didn't even bother to say "You know what I meant" or anything like that, just glared until Tony obediently sipped his drink and shut the hell up. "You spent over an hour just talking about Loki, how you weren't good enough for him and this and that. I was a bit… tipsy," Far more than that, judging by the embarrassed look, "and I joked that we should sacrifice a bull to prove your worth."

Ah. Well, there they had it. "So," Rhodey continued, "you pointed out that there was some farm nearby, so we went over in the suits and ended up getting them to sell us their biggest bull. We lead it home on foot, and got it up to the living room through the garage. We tried to get it to Loki's room, but it wouldn't fit up the staircase, so we were trying to think of a plan and I fell asleep while you were halfway through demolishing your piano."

A sacrificial bull? Thank god they'd been too drunk to properly research how that sort of thing was done, or they might have ended up actually cutting its throat or whatever halfway through the night. Tony'd never been _quite_ that drunk but there was always a fist time for everything. Apparently this included terrifying farmers and making ridiculously high charges to his credit card, which he assumed he'd had with him. If not he was probably going to get a very angry phone call from some rancher guy wondering where in all hell the money he'd been promised for his best bull had gone.

Well, hey, if that was the case they could just give it back, at least. Though it would be a pain and a half to find a way to bring that thing up to the roof without having to demolish at least one wall, which didn't sound all that appealing. Thank god he had a magical boyfriend. Or gods. Whatever the proper pluralfication was. Pluralfication. Almost certainly not a word, but it was damn fun to say. Or think. Or… Tony chugged down more of the coffee, pain pounding a beat against his throbbing head. Hung-over enough that your own thoughts hurt your brain was too hung-over, even in his book.

"What are you going to do with it, Tony?" Pepper demanded, still glaring him down, and his heart sunk a little bit. Well, this wasn't going to be very good.

"Well, Loki-"

"No. No magic. You can figure out how to solve this yourself, Tony, and I'm sure he'll agree with me." She snapped, rounding on Rhodey when he couldn't resist a slight smirk at his exaggeratedly crestfallen expression. "I'd say you can help but that would ruin the point. So you can find the farmer and get him to take this thing back, manually. J.A.R.V.I.S., don't show him the video feed from the suits if he asks, make him do it himself."

"Of course, Miss Potts."

"Traitor." Tony accused, but he couldn't quite bring himself to protest. Which was bad, it only brought a worried expression about and he realized he was probably making this worse, not better. Sheesh, he couldn't do anything right, could he? "That is cruel and unusual punishment." He complained at last, a bit too late for it to be really normal but it's _normal_ enough for him, so whatever. God, his head was pounding.

"And maybe you should think about that before getting drunk off your ass and bringing home a cow." Pepper made the whole thing seem a lot less funny than it might have been, all things considered, and even Rhodey looked too abashed to say anything. Sure, his friend thought it was his responsibility to be the mature one, to protect him- but Tony was the one who'd somehow managed to fuck things up. The hangover was here to stay, no doubt. Loki didn't want him getting drunk, either, which made it all a bit worse.

Especially when the god walked in (still in his pajamas, a god in _pajamas_ and okay, really, Tony hadn't thought he would actually _wear_ those when he'd bought them for him, it was too cute for his current BAC to deal with) looking distractedly tired, but quite calm and collected. "There's a bull in the living room." He informed them without so much as batting an eye, coming up beside Tony to take his coffee and offer a good-morning kiss in exchange.

Rhodey groaned and shook his head. "I'm too hung-over for this." He protested, which only made Loki smirk and raise an eyebrow (calling attention to his adorably sleep-bleary eyes, which he probably wouldn't like to know) before repeating the motion, holding the kiss long enough this time for Tony to start and sink into it-alcohol and instinct forgetting their company, for a moment- before pulling back.

"Is anybody going to _explain_ the bull in the living room?" He wondered casually, gaze automatically fixing on Pepper.

"Accidentally acquired. Hell, you want a bull? Take the bull, you can have a pet bull. Probably less annoying than that damn cat." Tony, incidentally, just didn't like animals- and Fenrir seemed to refuse to accept this and was constantly badgering him with high-pitched mewling sounds, claws scraping against his leg, and the constant demand for food. Speak of the devil, the thing had followed right after Loki and was now shuffling its way in what it must have thought was a sneaky manner, inching closer and closer to them before pouncing on Loki's bare foot and attacking it viciously, which didn't seem to hurt the god in the slightest.

"A bull?" He took another sip of Tony's coffee to consider this. "I've cared for cattle before, but I doubt this would be the best environment for it."

"Hey, do whatever you want with the thing, magic it off to the roof if you can care for it there. Build it a pen in the living room, whatever. I bet I could make a bull habitat…. Sounds fun." Tony mused, realizing he was drifting off topic only when Pepper cleared her throat pointedly. "Right. So. Yeah, have a cow- literally."

Fenrir let out an angry whining meow, demanding their attention, and Loki bent down to console him with an amused nod. "Very well, though I'm rather curious how it fit through the door."

"We went through the garage." Rhodey explained, staring at the cat with the oddest expression. "Tony, what the hell is that?"

"Oh. Right. Rhodey, meet Fenrir. Fenrir, meet Rhodey…. Or just, sit there and hiss, that works too. I think you're cat's a racist." Tony accused, poking the thing in the nose and drawing away on instinct when it tried to snap at his finger, though considering the armor it would have hurt itself more than him.

Loki must have made a note of this, for he drew his little adoption project away and frowned a warning at his lover who only pouted compliantly. Apparently he wasn't quite fuzzy enough-despite the beard- to override the cat in cuteness, because it continued to hold the focus of Loki's attention, purring loudly and bumping its head against the god's hand as he patted it affectionately. "A dog was attacking it. I saved it, and we kept it. Tony chose the name, for reasons beyond my comprehension."

"Ya know. Like, the giant wolf. Loki's child, or something. You have a lot of theoretical quadrapedal children you know. Or… octapedal. Whatever, I can't keep track of that horse's legs." The point being, Loki had fathered (or mothered) way too many animals for it to be normal even by mythological standards, but Tony wasn't going to press any of those issues on the off chance they might be true, in which case the sex was going to get much more awkward.

"I know the name, Tony." Right. Rhodey'd taken that class with him, after all, and remembered it at least as well as he did. Probably more so, because Tony's mind had sort of pushed aside the bestiality to make room for more coding when he was working, and the coding had reason to stay whereas the mythology did not.

"Loki, could you entertain yourself for the day?" Pepper was doing a very good job at disregarding the more awkward points of this conversation, probably a result of far too many years of experience. Not really the type of thing most people wanted to be experienced _in_.

"Hm?" The god stopped playing with his kitten long enough to tilt his head in consideration before nodding, stopping to scoop up Fenrir before standing straight once more. "I could certainly manage it. Where are you all headed?"

"We're going to go find whoever Tony bought that cow from. If we're going to keep it," And it was very clear here that Pepper was _not_ very happy, in the slightest, with letting that even stand as a suggestion, "I want to at least make sure that he actually paid a reasonable amount of money and didn't just scare him with the suit."

"So have JARVIS check the credit card bills or something." Tony protested a little more earnestly than he'd meant to. But he didn't much _want_ to re-enact "The Hangover" in his daily life, he wanted to sit around the house and work on potential weapons of mass destruction to tempt Hydra with, exchange not-so-witty banter with his boyfriend, and being half drunk did not make it seem like any less of a good idea to try out sex in the workshop, either.

Pepper would have none of it, though, and Loki seemed to be more on her side than on Tony's, so within twenty minutes he'd been ushered into normal clothes (of course Loki had decided he needed help there, and been so teasing about how he did it that it could probably count as abuse in court) and both he and Rhodey were doing their best to form a mental map of the night before while he drove them through the city. Pepper, being the only sober one, had insisted on driving- but nope, nobody else touches the steering wheel of Tony's favorite cars, and no, he couldn't have just taken a car she could drive, that would be stupid.

"I'm pretty sure we were still in Malibu. We had to walk the bull back, and we didn't go all that far." Rhodey decided. Okay, that was somewhere to start, at least- how many farms could there possibly be in Malibu?

"I know of four, at least. You need to tell me a direction, Jim." Pepper was the opposite of a regular person- nicknames came with not comfort but emotional stress, anger, warning, and Tony shrugged and gave his friend a not-so-reassuring thumbs up through the rear-view mirror. "And that's assuming it _wasn't_ a private farm."

"You _could_ just have had J.A.R.V.I.S. check the video feed." Tony reminded her, shrugging innocently when she turned a raised eyebrow worse than any glare on him. "What? Just saying. Now you're stuck driving the countryside while we argue over the origins of that cow from hell in my living room."

"I'm not driving." She pointed out calmly, apparently unbothered by the wait, despite her annoyance at not really having a goal. "And _you_ need to solve your own problems, for once. Try and remember which farm."

"Pep I can't remember anything about yesterday other than Las Vegas and sex in the shower with Loki, and I'm not sure how strongly those two things go together."

"Remind me never to use your shower again." Rhodey literally winced at the mental image, apparently not quite comfortable with the idea of Tony having sex with _anyone_ in a facility that he may or may not have stumbled open at some point in the future without that knowledge.

"Or the elevator."

"Don't elaborate on that."

"I don't need to, J.A.R.V.I.S. has it on video." Speaking of which, that tape should definitely be deleted. Like, immediately deleted- though he thought better of calling in and sending the order to the computer from afar just in case SHIELD was tapping his lines again. He was fine bugging Fury with a few comments just to make things as uncomfortable as possible, which always failed but whatever, but he didn't exactly want to broadcast to every agent with computer access that he was fucking the god of mischief. Though if any of them had a newspaper they'd already know that, wouldn't they?

"Poor J.A.R.V.I.S." James grimaced and Tony only cast him a playful wink through the mirror, coupling it with a blown kiss when he received a raised middle finger in response. Then they _both_ got a stern look from Pepper, who seemed to be tired of playing babysitter, and each managed their own version of a sheepish grin. For Tony that could have come across as mocking if you didn't know him- in other words to anybody but the two in the car.

And Loki. But that went without saying. He was a god, he saw and understood people in a way that made Tony a bit uncomfortable if he was going to be honest with himself, which he rarely was so why start now? "Start with the bar, I'm sure you can manage it from there." Pepper decided calmly, whipping out her phone and starting on the legalities SHIELD had left her (okay, him, really, but she was so much _better_ at it) with. Which didn't really make it all that easy to argue, and Tony stuck his tongue out in response to let her know that he disapproved of her ploy.

She ignored him, easily, voice curt when it next sounded- business time, probably some lawyer or something else Tony was banned from dealing with. He told people it was a medical condition- allergies to extremely stressful government workers, and even when he pulled out a doctor's note to prove it they merely rolled their eyes. Granted the note had been entirely forged and signed by some guy who'd claimed he could turn Tony's blood into rainbows or something, but it was the thought that counted. Tony was starting to think that guy hadn't been a real doctor.

Oh, god, he was acting like an idiot even in his memories now. Dammit booze, why must you be so good and then turn traitor like this? He was tempted to suggest they just stop along the way at every bar they knew until one remembered two drunk robots buying off all his whiskey, grab another drink at each just to be polite. But Pepper or Rhodey would take him seriously and be angry or concerned, and imagining the latter stung because really, he probably wasn't joking at all.

"So, Malibu and bars. Can't be too hard, just cut out all the ones I'm banned from and we've lowered it down to… eighty six pubs and seventeen sports bars, plus one T.G.I. Fridays." Tony decided, the numbers flashing through his mind without even needing to be searched for- indicated a problem, probably. "All in a day's work."

* * *

><p>If Tony hadn't fully appreciated Happy's absence before, he definitely did now. He liked to drive, loved it even and especially loved hot-rodding his cars to go at speeds barely legal even on the freeways with the knowledge that nobody'd ever ticket Iron man. But after <em>hours<em> of searching the city he was tempted to just call his friend up, tell him to get down there, right away- time to be a chauffeur again, forgot family reunions and compiled weeks of vacation time, god dammit.

Even Pepper was starting to get fed up, and looked like she might have been on the verge of agreeing to just accept J.A.R.V.I.S.' help when the answer came to them. Rhodey's phone rang at the insistence of some unknown number, and after a brief hello the man was silent for four or five minutes, at the end of which he gave a few relieved thanks and a rushed promise before hanging up and leaning forward to be heard over the music Tony had enlisted to blare out his annoyance over the whole trip.

"That's our cattle benefactor." Rhodey declared, ignoring the congratulatory whoop that took Tony's hands from the steering wheel and nearly swerved them into a passing truck. Maybe he should've let Pepper drive, after all. "_Apparently_ I was at least smart enough to give him my phone number. You left him the suspected lottery ticket number for the day."

"Did he win?" Tony wondered with some genuine curiosity, which of course went entirely ignored.

"You also left the two months worth of feed, plow harness, and a home-made pair of socks you apparently managed to haggle into the deal." See, this was why he kept trying to convince Pepper to let him go to meetings blasted- he was so much better with money that way. "You gave him enough money for the cow, _and_ the damn farm if you'd wanted." Or maybe not. Whoops. "The guy's going to retire, he doesn't want the bull back and he said he'd send you the thing's food by mail if we covered shipping."

"The socks too, right? What?" Tony shrugged at Pepper's disbelieving look of annoyance, feeling justified in the question. "I want the damn socks- and they'd better be comfortable, too."

"Yes, Tony. He's sending the socks." Rhodey sounded like he was on the verge of lunging into the front seat and strangling him, but decided against it probably just on the grounds that it would do his headache no favors. "Let's get back to your house, deal with the damn bull, and then I'm drinking whatever you've got left in your cabinet and going _home_."

"Sounds good to me." Pepper responded before Tony could, not even bothering to glance at him before adding, "And _you_ have had enough to drink. You can make yourself hot chocolate."

"It's not even winter." The protest might have held more conviction if Tony didn't very much like the possibility it presented. Loki was pretty cold in that Jotun form, wasn't he? So fine, they'd go home, trip entirely uneventful but for the bag of T.G.I.F. takeout sitting in the back with Rhodey, and he'd find something to feed the bull for the night then go downstairs with Loki and work on whatever drunken designs he'd finished for the expo. Maybe make sure Hammer had a real reason to avoid that work bench- wouldn't be polite to lie to him for _too_ long, after all.

* * *

><p>VVV<p>

Loki had adapted to the use of mortal communication rather quickly, though he still couldn't see the practicality of needing to keep the things plastered against your ear if you had any hope of hearing the other line properly. The phone kept slipping, his hands slick with blood and the metal was very smooth, until he was forced to lean with the thing pressed between his head and his shoulder, no doubt staining his shirt. He registered the fact with some annoyance but disregarded that just as quickly- it was already a mess, no doubt well beyond any mortal's ability to clean.

Oh well, it freed up his hands, anyway, to talk and work at the same time. "…and the final plans call for a casing of the same alloy he uses to create the suit, titanium-gold, though I could suggest a swap for something a bit more convenient if you like." He was finishing calmly, rattling off the final detail of a blueprint Tony hadn't bothered to conceal in his lab.

They were going to let Schmidt steal the design, it would hardly be any trouble if he had his own knowledge of it beforehand- and if that knowledge led to an improvement in whatever flaws Tony had purposefully instigated… well, neither Loki or Schmidt was likely to complain, at the least. "Something stronger, Lauson. Whatever he uses to power that heart of his- I want the same care shown to this weapon." The man was ordering, apparently unable to make anything to rival what Stark Industries was capable of creating, and yet far from fool enough to recognize the flaws in a concept when he heard it. Not enough of it, of course, to make his own- not without Loki's help in stealing it. He claimed Tony worked too far from scratch, most of the details were in his mind or constantly changing, so his information could hardly be expected to be _entirely_ accurate, in all fairness.

Schmidt thought he was getting the better deal, and planned on retrieving the final project anyway so had no qualms accepting this inconvenience. SHIELD was glad to let him take it, and thought they would come out all the more powerful for it. Who was really playing who, Loki wondered with a pleased smirk that translated into a sing-sock tone the former Nazi was all too ready to ignore.

"Oh, will do. We'll take very good care of it, I dare say you'll be pleased with what you see at the expo…" Loki's finger traced along the dull edge of a knife absently, that smirk now reaching his eyes. "It's _wonderful_. Speaking of which, have you chosen a time?"

Midgardian English, so much more simplistic and with that ever-mocking hint of an inferior race he disliked so much, could actually be rather fun in practice. Certainly he couldn't bring himself to speak _quite_ so dully as the average human, but there was a casual lilt he wasn't familiar with displaying, something entirely absent in Schmidt's reply. "The eighth day of the proceedings. You can ensure Hammer has something functional to present, nothing to be of real use." An excuse to attend, not to attract customers. Not all that far off from SHIELD's plan, actually.

Fury would be astounded to hear how well he and Schmidt thought alike- the thin line between moralities the only thing dividing them. "I'll be busy with helping Tony. I'll work with Justin when I have the time." Loki wasn't going to comply _too_ much to whatever this man said, no matter he was under the guise of an employer- and he was well aware that he wasn't expected to.

Schmidt ignored the snap reply just as Loki always ignored his. Both knew full well better than to count on anything else, though the former still seemed to think himself in charge of the latter, had no idea what sort of being he was really dealing with. "Ah, I meant to ask… are you enjoying my present?"

Tony's absence had lasted long enough to be useful, already. It wasn't hard at all to find an old model of the reactor- seemingly kept around just because Pepper would insist upon it, all-throughout circular rather than the triangular glow that could be found now. With that and the burnt out core Loki didn't doubt Schmidt would be able to replicate his own device and use it to power whatever he liked, though he may have some trouble considering the thing's purpose was to function a heart and a suit, not a nuclear missile. He had the concept available to him now, however, and it had been worth the trip just to watch how eagerly Hammer wanted to study it. And was refused, without so much as an explanation. Not like one was needed- the man was intelligent, he supposed, to be able to create some of the things he did… but compared to Schmidt or Tony he was a hopeless engineer.

"The reactor is coming in very useful." Schmidt deadpanned, apparently not appreciating the change of topic. "You will return for work again tomorrow. Do not be late." He clicked off again, once again not allowing Loki the chance of doing so first. The god didn't much mind, however- it would have been difficult to do himself, considering it took him a few seconds of fumbling to properly shut off the call and pocket his phone.

It would only be a few weeks before he and Tony went up to Las Vegas (he insisted on starting the trip early, for "sightseeing", which couldn't imply _anything_ good), after which there would be no time to work with either Schmidt or Tony himself. It would be so simple if he could simply enact their designs with magic, and yet he knew Tony preferred his own hands or those he could build or trust to something ethereal, whereas any use of power would reveal who he was to Lernae. He could always speed the progress along without either of their knowledge if he needed to, but best save that for a last resort. After all, it only meant another excuse to investigate Schmidt's buildings- and Loki was more than eager to do so, especially after that day in the workshop. He was happy to return every day in between now and the expo if he had to, just to weave his way through that building and make sure he was familiar with each and every weapon.

Each a potential threat- or potential asset.

"Mr. Stark is returning home, sir." J.A.R.V.I.S. piped up, entirely unaware of the conversation that had just passed without needing more than even a _touch_ of magic to ensure his ignorance. "Shall I warn him about the mess?"

How the computer managed to sound as genuinely sarcastic as its creator was beyond Loki's comprehension. "I should think not. There's nothing to worry about, I have my magic." With the party was one thing, of course. He'd made an absolute wreck of the living room-though the smashed apart piano was not his doing- and may as well be bothered to clean it up, seeing as it would take little more than a flick of his wrist.

"Very well, sir." The computer sounded amused, almost, and made no further comment even when Loki raised an eyebrow at what he was well aware was a disguised camera. Clearly it knew something he didn't, but he could hardly see what the matter was going to be.

Oh well. He turned back to his task, not bothering to do more than glance back briefly when he heard Tony and Rhodes' voices arguing as they filtered up the stairs. "You know, I can _deal_ with it, Tony, when you cause me hell on a daily base-"

"Give me some credit, every other day at least."

"-or when you make an ass out of yourself in front of the god damn senate. But now you're dealing with the fucking _Nazis_ and you're telling me I _can't_ come along to keep you out of trouble-"

"No, just one Nazi, that's different." Tony's voice was as sharp and cold-cut as ever, but there was a weariness Loki recognized in it. He doubted either the soldier or Pepper would, though, and for a moment was furious with either of them for failing to see how strongly their disappointment could really effect him. "No military. I may have let you take the War Machine suit, but you're still part of the air force and you guys have all that protocol bullshit to deal with. Last time anything like this went around you ended up giving Justin Hammer and Vanko what they needed to destroy the entire thing. Just so ya know, I'd kind of like to keep it _in tact_ this time, and that means no military. Leave this to me, and SHIELD I guess since Fury's such a stick in the mud."

"And Loki." Well. Loki wondered if they knew he could overhear them- and if they did not whether Rhodes would still have let such disapproval slip into his tone, mixed with something not unlike suspicion. Well, not all that surprising, really. He doubted any of them was convinced they could rely on him, trust him, as much as they'd been forced to.

"Ya know, I kind of thought he might be useful, being a Norse god and all. Stupid me, huh?" Tony was lacking that blatant sarcasm and slipping into a far more effective version of the same idea- tone completely genuine, but enough to bring Rhodes shouting some response that got cut off the moment their footsteps reached the top of the steps.

Loki would have continued his work with no more than a brief hello to Tony, but the man made some sound in the back of his throat that sounded dangerously similar to choking. The god turned with a frown to find a hand clasped over his mouth, another wrapped around his stomach as some near-green color set in, all anger apparently forgotten in what appeared to be a bout of internal illness. Rhodes was looking little better, whereas Pepper seemed put off but managed to only shrug and shake her head with a resigned sort of look.

"Was there some virus at this farm I should be aware of? If so, you all may remain there." Not as if he could get sick, but the thought was rather important all the same.

Tony only gagged behind his hand and turned around quickly, while Pepper gave a slight shake of her head and managed to clear her throat enough to speak. "You're… enjoying your gift, I see." She didn't seem to know whether to be more amused or disgusted, choking on what could have been either laughter or the same urge to vomit Tony seemed only to be barely suppressing.

Loki shot them each a strange look and turned, wondering what they could possibly be so upset by. They all knew he could clean the room up well enough magically, and anyway a mess would hardly merit that sort of concern, and it wasn't like he was doing a poor job of this. Fur, horns, hooves and whatever else was less than useful to the god had been discarded, but other than that the carcass was still mostly intact, even. Nothing more than blood draining out and a few cuts where he'd separated meat from bone- rather skillfully despite not having access to his favorite hunting knife. Honestly, did they think he'd never packaged meat before? They couldn't have thought he would call someone else in to do the job, or simply forgo the process and let magic handle it, unless…

Oh, dear. They'd thought he was going to keep the thing as a pet, hadn't they? Well, now why would he do a thing like _that_? He had enough to deal with with Fenrir who had taken to licking up the blood that Loki's tarp failed to catch, which only made Tony greener until he had to turn away.

"You wanted to keep it?" He wondered incredulously, smirking slightly despite himself when Tony managed a meek sort of nod, refusing to turn around. Clearly the engineer wasn't all that used to skinning his own food. "You haven't got a cow around here someplace, I assumed you couldn't possibly have meant the thing for breeding. Does it really bother you that much?"

"Smells awful." He replied minutely, real nausea finding its way in, helped along by the alcohol probably still shifting around in his system.

Loki's smile lost a touch of its mockery, and with a flick of his wrist the spilled blood on himself and the room vanished-though the bull remained hung up like it was, strips of meat now packaged- and let an artificial smell sweet and distracting replace the one he himself was accustomed too. These mortals, of course, were not- and even Rhodes gave a sigh of relief at the change.

"I'd apologize but it's far too late to do anything about this now." Loki pointed out casually, fingering his knife and deciding after a brief mental battle that he had better wait for them to leave before finishing up. "Are you saying you don't want it?"

"No, Loki, it's fine." Pepper assured, swallowing back her evident disgust and managing an amused smirk for Tony's predicament. "You know he _is_ a Viking, Tony, you should have expected that. James, stay for dinner. It looks like we'll have plenty to share."

"I've never eaten something I've looked in the eye before." Rhodes admitted a little warily. "I feel like I brought this thing to its doom."

"I'll stick to donuts." Tony decided, managing to turn around once again and maintaining only a hint of green shading. "They never look up at me with big brown eyes before I eat them."

"I have those around here somewhere, if you want them back." Loki taunted, not bothering to restrain his laugh when the man turned once more and replaced a hand over his mouth. "Like she said, I _am_ a Viking. Go and get the lab set up if you can't stand to be around here- I had some suggestions and we'd best get started on that weapon of yours if you're going to insist we're at that site a week early."

Tony nodded, apparently too in a hurry to comply to object to accepting any help on the planning of his project, and turned in a rush back down the stairs. Apparently working with the insides of machines had done little to prepare him for the sight of a cut-open dead animal in his living room. (The thing had refused to move, however, and Loki didn't like to teleport anything other than himself- took up too much energy, especially with something so dumb as a bull.) Pepper followed him down with a muttered excuse, and that left Loki in the room with no company other than a dead bit of cattle, a cat currently hissing because he'd gotten rid of the part of said cattle that had been in his reach, and Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes.

"Is this the part where you lecture me to bring him home before curfew every evening?" Loki deadpanned without once bothering to turn his head, pausing in his carving only to toss a small piece of meat to Fenrir, who dove upon it happily. "I've already heard the warning talk from Pepper, you know."

"Are you planning on killing Tony?" Blunt, harsh and determined- as if he thought he knew the answer to his own question, no time allotted to consider Loki's comment moments before.

"Of course not." He spoke without sincerity, a sharp touch of anger all that remained to tell Rhodes he was speaking the truth. He wouldn't coddle to Tony's numerous attachments, but Loki would not _harm_ him, not physically. There had been roughly… eight times he'd ever felt genuine love in the romantic sense, almost all of them mortal and those that weren't rarely heard of his feelings. None had he used to their own disadvantage, even if he used them as he was doing now.

He doubted that excuse would lead Rhodes to believe him, however. Loki, the god of mischief, often acclaimed the god of _evil_- it was hard for a human to believe someone like _him_ could feel love. Not their fault, of course, none of them lived long enough to truly appreciate emotion or to understand that there was no use in hampering its growth, nor did they gain enough experience with genuine feeling to learn how to disregard it when one needed to. Not their fault, but he hated them for it, all the same.

"He's not letting either me or Pepper go up to Las Vegas for this thing." Rhodes continued, apparently unbothered that his audience still hadn't so much as turned to look at him. "That leaves you and him up there alone. I don't trust SHIELD to take care of him, and I won't be there to do it myself. What are you planning?"

Loki cut another thick slice of meat, blood running down his arm sticky and wet and constant, and set it aside where it was immediately packaged by magical means. He took a moment to finely sharpen the blade of the knife, with another spell he used far more often, and went back to skinning the carcass. Just under his breath, just loud enough for Rhodes to hear, the low humming of a child's rhyme, nothing more.

**A/N:**

_**Ashes to Ashes**_

_**We all**_

_**Fall**_

_**Down.**_


	17. The God of Mischief Meets Conservatism

**A/N: -Gets on knees and begs forgiveness- Omigosh, why did this take almost two weeks to post. ;_; I'm so sorry I made you guys wait this long, but it's pretty long at least, right? Agh. No excuses. **

**This part was a bit… difficult to write. I was struggling to finish today, so I'll proofread again tomorrow just in case, but I hope I got a good balance here- between summary and dialogue and whatnot. Also, I know the top of the Luxor is actually a light, not a hotel room, but I'm just gonna pretend it's not because yup.**

**So here you go. This chapter contains goofiness, sex (often implied, once fairly detailed), and important plot development/action-ish type stuff. About time for the drama, right?**

**Disclaimer: I own none of the shows, characters, or locations/businesses in this story.**

VVV

Tony knew Pepper had harbored some secret hope that Loki would help him out, even if she seemed to disapprove of him in the not-so-grand scheme of things. For one thing, a steady relationship and someone to fuss over him who he might actually listen to should make him more willing to get to sleep when they saw him staying up for half a week on end, right?

Nope. Actually, Loki made it easier _not_ to get any rest. They didn't have long to perfect the designs he'd made to please SHIELD (or, indirectly, Hydra, but whatever) and while he wouldn't let any magic go into the machine itself, Tony had to admit the stuff was useful for heating and shaping metal, or arranging the parts without having to crane them in robotically. It also cut waiting time between steps down to nada, so there weren't even hour long breaks to distract him with the realization that oh, right, he needed to sleep, didn't he?

But Loki didn't. The god didn't get tired all that quickly-if at all- so neither of them realized they were probably up too late for Tony's health until he collapsed at least twice, at which case he'd take a quick nap then right back to work.

(He probably wouldn't have slept at all until the expo if he hadn't noticed that Loki looked pretty damn good when he was working on a machine. Specks of oil smeared across parts of his face and all over his hands, sweat from the fire-work sticking his hair to the back of his neck, and muscles tensed with the physical work he was doing to satisfy Tony's belief that magic and machines should not mix. An outright mess. A damn sexy mess.

A few minutes of some flirting, kissing, and ripping of clothing later usually lead to Tony being too tired to do anything _but_ sleep through the night.)

But hey, no time to sleep meant more time to work- effective, quick, so that by the time he and Loki made their early trip up to Vegas (with reservations for a different extravagant hotel each night, multiple expensive dinners, a few shows which anybody under twenty one shouldn't even see the _tickets_ for, and one Criss Angel magic show just because Loki'd probably get a kick out of it) Tony's lab had seen the creation of its most dangerous project since the Jericho. Well, unless you counted the Iron Man suit as 'dangerous', but that all depended on who was using it. And with him…

Okay, so the second most dangerous thing since the Jericho.

So voila. Completing the weapon (for detailed revelation at the opening night of his exposition, of course, and okay _maybe_ he'd let slip to the press that he was working on something highly explosive for the first time in months) marked eight and a half days until the crumbling or otherwise of SHIELD's latest plan. A day later and he was in the car with Loki, who didn't seem at all happy he hadn't been allowed to just teleport them up there or something. Tony preferred to keep his molecules all snug and cozy, thank you very much.

A day and three quarters later (exactly 13.8 hours behind schedule, fucking traffic) they'd just escaped from being caught behind the final of four pile-ups, one of which had apparently involved an overturned coca cola truck and hadn't _that_ been a mess. (Thank god for magic or they'd still be back there- though the passerby were probably still wondering how the hell some hundred plus gallons of soda had just magically siphoned off the overpass and then vanished before hitting the cars below. Tony was kind of scared to ask where Loki had _sent_ that.) But the Monte Carlo was only about five minutes away from the off-ramp, and since it was about ten fifty at night the hotel was plenty welcome, thank you very much.

"This entire building is nothing but rooms?" Loki wondered, glancing inside without so much as looking at the usher who had obliged to take their bags up for them. Note to self- teach the godly prince that a low paying job was not equal to servitude before he got Tony blacklisted by yet another worker's union.

"And a pool, a casino, a few restaurants and probably multiple hidden drug cartels or brothels but I've been told you're supposed to be invited to those." Tony assured without a hitch, wondering for a moment if maybe the god would believe him. Not like he'd have much trouble finding drugs or prostitutes by accident in his search for the non-existent rooms, but whatever. "Anyway, this isn't where the fun stuff is. 'Cept maybe the casino. We just sleep here, maybe lounge around the pool, but that can wait 'till morning. All the fun stuff in Vegas happens at night."

"So we're to sleep during the day?" Loki didn't sound all that surprised, but then again it wasn't like either of them had anything even remotely resembling a normal or steady sleep schedule, now did they? "I thought that was the purpose of coming to the hotel."

"Dropping that off." Tony waved towards the bags, which were now vanishing along with the usher into an elevator, and held up the key card he'd just obtained. "And picking this up. They close registration way before the time we'll be back. You feeling sleepy-pie?"

The comment was meant mostly to be as a joke, but Loki was looking pretty worn out by the ten-hour drive up there. It was way too easy to forget that he still had metal thread sewing his side together, and sitting up probably did his healing stomach no real favors, either. Whoops. Maybe they should consider taking it easy… but they were in _Vegas_, and they only had a week. (Well, a week _alone_, but when that expo started it would dominate most of the strip- no place for most of the really fun stuff.)

"I just thought we may as well make use of the room while we have it." Loki purred, a deep kiss that immediately followed crossing out the 'just sleep' option on Tony's mental chalkboard. A few cameras clicked, but he returned the kiss and counted to five before he could bring himself to care enough to pull away, licking his lips to drink up that taste of ice and magic he would never get tired of.

"And that is also a perfectly viable option." Tony agreed the moment he'd come up for air, grabbing Loki by the hand and turning toward the elevator. "Willing to lose another hour of sleep over this."

"An hour?" Loki purred and nipped at his ear, earning a hitch of breath that had to be quickly passed off as nothing even when the god started to play with teeth and tongue at his neck. Jesus Christ, they were in _public._ Not even Tony was that shameless most of the time- and he suddenly found that thought very, very sexy. "You underestimate me, Tony."

There was nobody in the elevator (thank god), and he managed to fumble for the correct button without losing face. Remembering the _last_ time he'd been in an elevator with Loki didn't make things any easier, either. "You know, it is totally unfair that you can get me all hot and bothered so easily. I should be, like, immune by now, o-or something." The words ended in a whine as Loki pulled him close and traced the sensitive part of his lower jaw with kisses and bites. "Jesus- can't this thing go any faster?"

Loki laughed, breath in hot bursts against his neck, and the elevator began to move more quickly, whirring a complaint for the magical influence. "Well, that would just be no fun. I like you like this."

"I aim to please." Tony babbled, grabbing Loki by the collar and pulling him into a rough kiss almost in time with the elevator's arrival on floor 17. He pulled away with his mouth but dragged the god back with his grip on that cloth, pulling him backward into the hallway and luckily having the sense not to dive in for more before they actually made it back to the room.

Contrary to popular belief making out with somebody in a hallway was not publicly acceptable, even in Vegas. Currently lip-locked or not, they were apparently clear enough with their intentions that almost immediately upon exiting the elevator one passing guest let out a low whoop to draw the attention of the rest of the hall. Including a thirty-something mother in the most conservative suit Tony had ever seen and two kids, both male. One tugged at the hem of her jacket and hurriedly pointed, whispered "That's Iron Man!" and begged to go get the autograph of him and his boyfriend.

The mother grimaced and dragged him off without a word, whereas some half-drunk businessman gave the kid a high-five before snapping a quick photo. "Now the party's here!" He decided with a grin, winking once before staggering off toward his room.

"Is this going to happen a lot?" Loki deadpanned, glaring at the man's back with such venom one or two of the other hotel patrons shuffled away nervously, apparently deciding against the chance to meet the famous couple.

"Not if you manage to restrain yourself from stripping me before we get to the room, usually." Tony promised. "Now come on, you're not getting out of this after trying to seduce me in an elevator again. Starting to think you've got a kink for those or something. Maybe I should just hack their system to freeze it halfway up one of these days."

"That would be rude." The god was walking again, scanning the plaques and signs until he recognized the direction they should be headed and made off toward it. "The hotel might have trouble working if it were short on transport for so long."

And for the rest of the night he was showing Tony _exactly_ what that might mean.

* * *

><p>Waking up alone in bed after sex was always weird- Loki was an early riser and usually had a lot more energy by the end of the night- but it was even weirder waking up <em>not<em> alone, and staying that way. Tony Stark did not cuddle. That was just a simple fact of life, and one everybody who got into his bed knew full well by the time clothes came off.

But Loki seemed to be the exception. More like he _refused_ to be just like the others. Tony never had the intention of turning him into a one night stand, but his definition of relationship didn't really involve anything genuinely romantic- yet here he was, waking up from the sun hitting his face through the blinds of a suite in Las Vegas, arms wrapped limply around the still-sleeping god of mischief. Normally Tony would have gotten to his feet within moments of waking up, showered and dressed and hey, maybe if they were awake by then taken his lover of the night before out to whatever casino he was exploring while he waited for nightfall.

Even if he hadn't been here with the _intent_ of spending time with Loki he wouldn't have been able to do that. He'd seen the god when he was literally dying, or just resting on his couch- relaxed, but still threatening despite how ridiculously cute (yes, he knew that word shouldn't apply to a god but come on, there was nothing else for it) he looked when he was asleep, curled around whatever was closest. In this case, that would be Tony, head pressed against his chest and breathing slow and steady against him.

On these mornings he looked almost vulnerable, harmless. Power that was gone as surely as it was ever there- and it was _okay_. No Norse god, no Iron Man. Just Loki and Tony, not the inventor or the playboy philanthropist but the guy- somebody he hadn't _been_ before.

When Loki woke up at last and asked in a grumpy voice why Tony was looking at him like that he got only a laugh in response before being told to get up, places to be and people to see and all that.

So almost an hour later ("No, you are _not_ wearing that, put on something I packed _for_ you- no not that either- you know what, sit still I'm playing dress up") Tony was introducing Loki to the concept of the slot machines. Unfortunately, the god didn't see any point in games of chance, especially not when he could easily magic the things to land on the major jackpot every time without any possible proof that he was doing it.

"No, that's not the point. It's the risk, see? Just to see what you get. It's about luck, for fun." Tony insisted, dropping one coin into the machine and guiding Loki's hand to the lever, much to his annoyance. "It's called gambling for a reason, no skill involved. All it takes is the arm muscle required to move one of these things, and the minimal intelligence to understand what those pictures mean."

"And you can gain money and influence based on that? I weep for Midgardian society." Loki deadpanned before pulling the lever and giving Tony a look that clearly said 'I'm humoring you while vehemently protesting my own actions'. Some whirring lights and energetic beeping noises that made the god visibly cringe later and four quarters came out to replace the original one.

"See? Fun. 'Course you can get nothing, or try and build up a huge amount and lose it all halfway through, but whatever. Point is, it's mindless entertainment." Tony gave the slot machine an affectionate pat, jumping slightly when it immediately began to clang and spark at his touch.

"Not funny." He muttered, refusing to condone Loki's grin by actually paying it any attention and merely throwing one of the quarters at him. "Come on, I'll show you blackjack or something. Maybe if you get bored you can have the cards come to life and start traumatizing people with paper cuts."

"If?"

"Rhetorical. Just try to avoid people's eyes or whatever, I don't want to deal with any lawsuits." Loki nodded, almost as if he were taking the entire situation seriously and actually meant to attack casino workers with renegade strips of painted paper.

Tony'd just have to make sure to keep him entertained, then, preferably in a way that wouldn't lead to bodily pain on anybody's part, most especially not if Loki caused it. He knew the god could and probably would hurt or even kill just for fun- but as far as Tony was aware he hadn't, yet, on earth, and until he had to deal with that he could more than willingly cope with a few of his boyfriend's non-violent personality quirks. (Or hey, the violent ones too, so long as they were in the right context.)

So off it was to the gambling tables- which Loki turned out to be unfairly talented in manipulating, even without his magic. People were giving them nasty looks at blackjack within a half hour, the same for poker and Texas hold 'em. Luckily _more_ people were just enjoying gathering around and watching, especially when the famous billionaire and his date made their way to the Craps table (Loki rolled his eyes at the name but hey, a game's a game. Weird name though.)

Tony was good at this game, and therefore had decided it was the best one a casino might have to offer. Loki, however, seemed reluctant to delve into it and consented merely to watch and hang by his side, where there was usually one of that year's playmates or somebody with a beer. The god, obviously, was neither- though it was pretty funny to imagine him dressed up like a playboy bunny. Normally a huge crowd gathered around, practically touching him, to watch someone with as much money as he had gamble it all away, but apparently Loki's presence warned most of them to at least a foot back.

"Ya know, if you chase off all the girls you've gotta blow on the dice for me." Tony teased, holding them out in front of the god-he was shooter, and normally the players would be impatient he was taking so long but most just seemed like they wanted to drink in every moment at the table with him, and he wasn't about to tell them to do otherwise- and expecting him to make the dice jump out of his hand or something.

Instead Loki took his hand in one of his own and blew a breath of ice onto the game pieces, smirking once at Tony's look of surprise before bending down to kiss the tips of his fingers. "My pleasure." He drawled casually, letting go and straightening up while the rest of the table watched him, a little baffled.

You'd never have known the whole lot of 'em were seasoned gamblers, they were used to far more outlandish gifts of good fortune than _that_, and yet apparently they'd noticed something off about the regality Loki carried himself with. Simple movements were the ones that always took Tony by the greatest surprise, and for a heartbeat or two he only stared at the god. Then felt the weight of the dice, like blocks of ice in his hand, and let then roll over the harsh green and white of the gaming table.

Everybody cheered characteristically, though Tony would have been more surprised if he _hadn't_ rolled a flat seven. Even so he bowed theatrically and called out for a new bet, but Loki was apparently bored of gambling. The taller man grabbed him and stole a quick, deep kiss before pulling back with a reprimanding frown even as the crowd either cheered or shifted about uncomfortably, depending on how liberal their views were.

"I'm bored. Let's go eat." Loki decided casually, grip still tight on Tony's shoulders like he wasn't going to accept a 'no'.

Not like Tony would have given one. Loki may not have taken to gambling like he'd hoped he would, but the god of mischief was bound to enjoy a themed restaurant with knights battling it out while they ate, right?

Wrong. He spent the entire meal pointing out tactical flaws, noting chinks in the armor that would lead to instant death in a real battle, and picking apart every single special effect like he'd been the one to design it. Tony was a little annoyed that he disliked it as much as he did- but the show turned out to be so stupid he only joined in, making a mental note as they left to call the place up and give him his number so they could get some _real_ animatronics next time they wanted a dragon to interrupt their actor's poorly staged battle.

Turns out it wasn't just the bad stuff Loki didn't like. He thought Midgardian music was tasteless, sneered at Criss Angel's tricks (though he seemed to find the attempt pretty funny, which was what Tony'd been aiming for) and left Cirque de Solei saying he could do as much himself, _without_ the aid of harnesses or the like, and when Tony challenged him on that he'd dragged him back to the hotel and proved that yes, he _was_ more flexible than any of the performers. The strip club was probably the absolute worst highlight of the week. Loki had been bored and offended by the outfits and movements of the girls (or men, Vegas didn't judge) and taken it upon himself to make them act like their uniforms implied. Aka, twisted the metal pole into a hook and caught an unlucky girl's bra on it.

The customers had plenty of fun with that, but Tony dragged Loki out of there and left enough money for the poor girl to keep her out of the strip joints for the rest of her life.

So, okay, maybe he _should_ have figured that Vegas would be too tame for Loki. The guy was the god of mischief, after all, but Tony had thought he would enjoy it- instead he seemed more fascinated by all the dull stuff. Like the museums (the ones not about chocolate, though he ate plenty of M&Ms at that one), or the suburban neighborhoods you just didn't _get_ in the parts of Malibu Tony took people to. God forbid, he even seemed to enjoy the _business dinners_. People were flooding in for the expo at a rapid rate, and every now and again Pepper would call him up and announce that he should go and make nice with the contractor of some newly developed firm or whatever.

All hopes of using Loki as an excuse were dashed when the god leaned against his shoulder and caught the tail-end of their argument. "Hm? Dinner with the engineers? That sounds interesting. I'll wear that suit." He decided obliviously, kissing Tony quickly and smiling like he should have when offered the chance to see some of Vegas' most extravagant and expensive shows.

Loki wasn't _boring_, but he sure was amazed by some boring stuff. Maybe the only official meetings he was used to were war councils, and Tony knew well enough already that the god had never tasted anything so good as Earth food before he plunged down from the sky. But come on. This was Vegas, even better- the strip, and he didn't like any of it.

It was kind of annoying, a completely foreign concept to him. And, of course, Tony's luck was shit enough for Loki to notice on their way to the MGM Grand-best restaurant booked out for the Stark Expo early arrivals."Is something bothering you?" The god murmured into his ear, having drawn him in with an arm around the waist a moment earlier.

For somebody so cold and calculating Loki sure was… touchy, like he couldn't get enough of holding or being held by Tony. Also a foreign concept to the engineer, but one he very much liked. "I feel like I'm entertaining a nun or something. Seriously, you'd rather go to the business dinner with a bunch of old men then the Blink 182 concert?" The tickets for which were very expensive, might he add. Well, okay, not as expensive as buying 2000 pounds of living, breathing hamburger meat, but whatever.

"I'd just rather go out to dinner. I'm interested in the people you work with." Loki seemed to find his annoyance amusing or, worse- _cute_, and gave him a quick, embarrassing kiss on the cheek. "We gambled and watched dancers in the court on Asgard. And I dare say the dancing was in far better taste."

"Ever unclothe any girls up there?"

"If a woman moves like that I assume she's attempting to seduce whoever is watching her. I merely saved her some time." Loki replied without an ounce of shame, which Tony was pretty sure was a bad thing. He'd have to sit the guy down and give him a lecture on woman's rights (and probably how he was a horrible example to follow and don't check out those tabloids for ideas or anything all right?).

"For the god of Mischief you're like, disturbingly conservative. Or maybe you're just asexual. Either way it's weird." He complained as a bouncer took their names down, of course not stupid enough to ask if Tony Stark was on his list. And hey, if he wasn't better make sure to put him on it hella quick.

Loki only smiled like he knew something Tony didn't and followed him into the restaurant- already packed, because why should he be on time to his own event? A few of the men lounging about were looking rather annoyed at being made to wait, but most just seemed glad that he was actually there at all now. Others were deep in conversation with reporters,who quickly hurried their way out of the discussion when they realized Iron Man had just walked in- and with his _boyfriend_ no less.

At least Christine whatever wasn't there. Still, a few familiar faces and a few familiar bodies (nice tight jeans sir, and hey that's a _very_ low cut dress, I recognize that) came up with their cameras and microphones to shoot questions rapid-fire at him, which he brushed aside with a few winks, flirtatious comments, and blatantly sarcastic refusals to respond. Easy peasy, he did it all the time- no trouble to just get 'em out of there so he could actually sit down, work, and eat for the next hour then get the hell out of there.

Also wrong. Loki'd been mostly locked up during the weeks since the press coverage of their relationship- either fussing away in his lab or Schmidt's where no reporters were allowed nor would ever be. The vultures of the media were practically starving for a story that he and Tony had kept locked up with them and their machinery, though their vigor wasn't anything he wasn't used to dealing with. Loki? Not quite. Apparently they didn't have nosy press guys on the realm eternal.

"Were you and Stark together before or after entering his employment?"

"It's well known you've been helped into Mr. Stark's home under apparent distress- did you move in together because of an abusive home life?"

"Mr. Stark, what made you decide to take on a steady relationship?"

"Will Stark Industries be providing any support for the effort to legalize gay marriage?"

Loki was staring at the reporters as if he couldn't decide whether to burn them into ash or sign them up for a mental hospital. Time to step in and rescue him, probably, but before Tony could manage it the god had started a response and they fell into eager quiet. Uh oh. "How on _earth_ could you possibly think any of that is your concern? If my relationship with Tony is the most pressing story you can find then you should consider finding a job that will exercise your minimal brain power a little more effectively."

Okay, maybe he _should_ make sure the media didn't start flinging more abuse their way, but the looks on their faces were absolutely hilarious. Tony'd thrown his own insults at the press before, but never so blatantly. And hey, he was Tony Stark, he could do whatever the hell he wanted and what were they supposed to say about it? None of them knew they were talking to a god (definitely not the religious reporter who'd constantly claimed his company was the prelude to the devil and a mocking of god's world and blah blah blah) and far as they saw some nobody engineer was telling them off like he couldn't care less. Which he couldn't, and they'd better learn that quick.

"Of course it's our concern. You and Mr. Stark are making a mockery of love." Not the formerly noted religious girl, but a man with narrowed eyes and way too much product in his hair to be bitching about gay couples. "First you run around with any adulterer who comes your way and now you're engaging in sodomy. I'm not a God-fearing man, Mr. Stark, but if you have a soul then I'm beginning to fear for it."

"Not a god-fearing man?" Loki wasn't giving Tony any time to talk, but he was willing to shrug it off and watch how an immortal handled it when somebody stuck their nose in his business. "Well you should be. Some of them might disagree with your concept of sexuality. Not to mention the hypocrisy is rather annoying, don't think I can't recognize the remainder of a limp when I see it."

The man looked a little taken aback, but probably would have jumped in with another comment if not for one of the female engineers cutting in. "There's only one God." She protested calmly.

"Well, if he'd come down and tell me so himself then perhaps I'll believe you." Loki deadpanned, apparently enjoying the private joke that hey- _he_ already had.

Amusing or not, Tony didn't want to get caught up in some evangelical discussion when there was a restaurant full of Lockheed-Martin representatives who wanted to talk about exactly _how_ explosive their presentation was allowed to be. "Drink enough tonight and maybe he will. Gossip pool's over, clear out the Watering Hole- time to talk business before I'm too blasted to form a coherent sentence. I know I look great on camera but let's get you guys out of here. Sweetie, I hear the word 'god' or 'gods' from you even once tonight and you're welcome to join them."

The girl only shrugged and nodded agreeably. Good. Tony had nothing against any sort of religion, unless it was shoved in his face- the only one who seemed annoyed with his and Loki's relationship seemed to be the well-groomed man. Probably the companies and reporters hadn't been dumb enough to send in anybody with blatant homophobia issues.

Well, day's allotment of awkward tension aside, the reporters cleared out with some reluctance and Tony slid into his seat, Loki scooting in beside him a moment later and leaning his head on his shoulder, looking as if he was going to throw one of the steak knives at whoever told him to act more professionally. Tony ordered the whole table wine and got himself chicken strips (mostly because he'd had way too much beef recently and the waiter looked baffled when he insisted they specially prepare it) before tipping his chair back and insisting they "get on to work".

* * *

><p>So, Loki got more of a buzz out of pissing off reporters than he did watching a Blue Man concert, or getting kicked out of a casino. But hey, he had plenty of those to deal with after that first "interview", and even if Tony had needed to literally drag him away from some girl who'd mistakenly asked him what had been the source of his injuries it was good enough that he was enjoying himself. (Which he always did- even if it meant skipping out on whatever they were doing to return to the hotel room with the results that they were having sex a <em>lot<em> and Tony had taken started to feel it in increasingly sore muscle. But whatever, it was so, so worth it.)

He also seemed to be vanishing in the middle of the night, primarily after scientists began to pour in rapidly for the expo starting up in precisely 43 hours, but even if Tony's eyes shifted to the briefcase that held his suit whenever he noticed this he managed not to follow after him.

(Though he did put up a call for the security camera feeds of the Bellagio to be routed to J.A.R.V.I.S. and monitored, just in case. And why not throw in every other hotel while he was at it, because even if he loved Loki and trusted him with his own well being, it was something different entirely to trust him with that of others.)

He did like the Luxor though. The entire time they'd been in the city Tony had caught him staring with appreciation or curiosity at the giant faux-pyramid with the closest thing to interest he'd shown in any of the strips attractions so far, so Tony shifted his plans for the last night of their lone week to a booked room in the suite at the tip top of the hotel. Pepper was probably going to have a heart attack when she got his credit plan bill for that month, but whatever- the look on Loki's face when he peered out the window at the city spread out below was worth it.

He looked happy, almost childishly pleased by the view- and… well, if Tony was going to be honest with himself (which he rarely was) it was a little creepy. Like he half expected the god to exclaim "I am ruler of all I survey" or some tacky bullshit like that. Maybe it was a bad idea to give him a power trip, to have him standing in this extremely gaudy room and easily looking down at thousands of people or more, practically ants on the pavement. And they had a full-round view, too- the room was on its own floor, elevator straight into it because there wasn't much room for anything else way up here. Way up as in the-ceiling-ended-in-a-point 'way up'.

Loki turned to him and smiled, the child-like warmth wiping out the rest like it had never been there at all. "It really is almost like Asgard. I thought it might be."

Well, that was _very_ different from Tyrannical motivation. "Glad ya like it. And hey, look, no grumpy businessmen necessary."

"One is." Loki decided with a teasing smirk, moving away from the window and crossing the room to tug pointedly at Tony's tie. "But I rather hoped he might have something in mind a little more entertaining than business."

"Just a little?" The god was never all that good with ties, so Tony undid it in a few swift movements and tossed it carelessly aside before diving into a heavy kiss, returned without a moment's pause.

Loki didn't need talk to get his point across, and if either of them made a sound for the next few minutes it was largely involuntary- muffled groans or gasps that ended into heavy breath when they'd finally gotten situated. Tony shoved against the King-sized bed in Egyptian cotton sheets while Loki pushed him down, situated on his lap. "I like this view better." Tony decided.

Loki only laughed and bent in to kiss him again, neither man allowing themselves to pull away despite the difficulty they faced in fumbling with each other's shirts. "I can't choose." He said when they stopped to breathe again, skilled hands working at his lover's jeans while said lover tried to drink in every aspect of his appearance.

(Like he did every time, like it was always the first time, like if he didn't hang onto it it would be gone forever and he'd never again see something so beautiful as the mostly unclothed god of mischief straddling his hips while the city lit up the night behind and far below him.)

"Maybe," Loki's voice was little more than a purr now as his hands slid along the waistline of Tony's pants, thumbs hooking the cloth at the sides and tugging them downward, "I'll have to decide. Back you up against the window and have you like that," Tony knew better by now than to try and hide it when he liked something the other man did, and groaned appreciatively both from the mental image and Loki's thumb as it rolled against the hollow of his hip, down his thigh, calves, "see if I can't compare the two. But first you're going to take _me_, here."

Tony had always had some pretty dirty mental images surrounding the nickname 'silver tongue', but he was beginning to appreciate the verbal (intended) meaning it offered as much as he was the implied (check: proven) skill in oral sex. Loki'd learned after the third time (thanks to some lack of physical restraint on Tony's part that had led to lack of verbal restraint on his) that his partner really, really liked to hear dirty talk. "I can do that." He agreed, licking his lips without any sort of shame.

But hey, who wouldn't? Loki was sitting up on his knees now so that there was air as well as Tony's boxers separating them, but seeing as he was still in his pants that was all right. At least for the length of time it took Tony to travel his hands up Loki's thigh to unclasp and tear down the offending garment, leaving them both in nothing but underwear after some brief struggling. A little more fumbling, some kissing and murmured words that had Tony fully hard and aching already (_I want you- inside me/ I'm going to make you come as many times as possible, Tony/ Make me beg, Tony, I want you to, take whatever you want, anything)_, and then those were out of the way too- leaving nothing but the air. Because for some reason a lust-filled brain could not understand Loki was still sitting up, keeping him firmly planted to the bed with one hand while the other busied itself searching the hotel room drawers.

Oh, right. "Top right." A bit inconvenient because they were on the left bed (why were there two beds, anyway? Who the hell came up to a room like this if they weren't planning on sleeping together?) but Loki was flexible enough to reach over and grab the lube, which was always the first thing Tony unpacked.

Hey, he was in_ Vegas_ with his boyfriend who had the sex drive of ten sixteen year-olds compiled into one, he knew his priorities.

The one downside to all this was that Loki himself _didn't_ like dirty talk, which was always a shame because Tony was very good at it. Yeah, he liked to make him fall apart into non-lingual sounds of pleasure, but other than the occasional begging (which, yes, was only occasional, and Tony wouldn't tell himself otherwise) he didn't seem to enjoy hearing him speak. Which was never as hard as it should have been, because even the way Loki's fingers traced circles up the length of his erection, adding lube to the precum already dripping down was enough to leave him virtually incoherent.

He was itching to explore more of Loki's body, inside and out, but the god never seemed to need him to do that. When Tony moved to take the bottle he only pinned his hands down by the wrist and smirked briefly before drawing back, hands tracing a line over Tony's body until settling on either side of his hip. He may not have approved of magic in the work place but he definitely had no qualms about it here, when it sparked pleasure through Loki's fingers and Tony's skin, hot and cold merged together. _Christ_. Tony moaned more loudly than he'd normally allow himself to and arched his back at the touch, which dispersed into a series of gasps of pleasure when Loki moved down to meet him, bringing Tony into himself and hitching his breath.

Loki was still for a moment, eyes shut against the sensation, giving them both time to get used to the feeling before rocking his hips experimentally. A low groan found its way through his lips but Tony kept his eyes wide, greedily drinking in the image of Loki flushed with heat, chin dipped against his chest and face a mask of pleasure, little gasps and pitched moans, almost whimpers, falling through his mouth at an easy rate as he rocked against Tony's thrusts and brought himself lower, deeper around him. It was almost maddening, and Tony wanted to tell him just _how_ maddening, how hot and wet and _good_ he felt around him.

He probably wouldn't have been able to, even if Loki hadn't bent down to kiss him then, fingernails digging into his hip and breath tight with restraint. Tony returned the gesture almost desperately, amused to notice how tightly Loki was shutting his eyes, and gave an experimental jerk of his hips. The kiss was broken with a breathy cry, the god's head falling back as full-body tension took him, and Tony was barely any more controlled, resisting the urge to just cant his hips and grind into Loki.

"I wish I could bring a-ah-another man to join us." He moaned, stealing another faltering kiss and gasping into it, reminding Tony that whatever the god was _he_ could break him, make him stumble and be human for awhile. It encouraged his ego as much as his cock, neither of which probably much needed it. "I want to watch you fall apart. Writhe -_oh_- underneath-from both ends... But I don't want to share you." The words ended almost in a whimper and Loki pressed his forehead into the space between Tony's forehead and neck, moaning nonsense into his shoulder and drawing himself almost completely away then practically slamming back down, hands now braced against Tony's shoulders and squeezing so tightly it hurt. "This is- ah!…a-all mine. You're mine. You belong to me. I own you, all of you."

Jesus Christ, how could he even _speak_? Tony only pressed his own head against the crook of Loki's neck and began to kiss along the skin there and murmur against it _yes, all yours, just yours_ and meaning it, for the first time in years.

Time didn't seem to pass when he was with Loki, just blurred into movement and heat and pleasure, and he was never sure whether it was too soon or not when he felt all that building up. He tried to drag this out as long as he possibly could, but Loki always seemed to realize when he was nearing release and didn't let him torture himself long, pulling him apart with a quickened pace and his name on that Silver Tongue, practically whimpered and Jesus_ Christ_. When he came it was with a strangled cry that probably could have woken half the hotel if not for the isolated shape of their floor, and Loki followed soon after a few strokes of Tony's hand, panting his name throughout.

Loki pulled away but didn't fall to the side, kissing Tony almost softly and sinking against him, managing not to be a burdensome weight despite their difference in size. Just warmth, comfort, flesh and blood that turned to life under his hands.

* * *

><p>VVV<p>

Tony absolutely thrived under the atmosphere of his weapon's expo. He flirted with reporters, signed autographs, and charmed potential business partners with his ever-present tone of something borderline mockery that none of them ever seemed to notice. It was almost intriguing to watch, and Loki found himself almost more entranced by those interactions than he was by the event itself.

Then again, that hadn't really started and wouldn't until Tony's opening speech concluded, along with the presentation of their weapon. Yet he didn't have very high expectations for his chances of making this into something useful aside from the benefits he could reap from SHIELD's plan. None of the machines that had formed up as their inventor's arrived had been worth his interest in more than a passing glance. Hardly worth leaving their bed every night but the last to get a preview, but the expo was set to last for a long time yet. Though many people would be pouring in to view the opening night there was still plenty yet to come that may actually grab his attention.

For the moment, however, he was busy playing the role of Tony Stark's mysterious boyfriend, still Luke Lauson to the public eye. Tony had slipped up multiple times and called him Loki in front of others, but the god had shut off any curiosity for the "nickname" by telling the reporter who'd asked that explaining his favorite brand of mischief would be a bit inappropriate for public television.

It was strange to see how much people loved Tony. From the moment he'd stepped onto that ridiculously elaborate stage SHIELD had prepared at the center of his expo they were cheering as loudly as they could manage. They clapped, hooted, catcalled, and praised him for just about every witty comment that fell from his mouth. Loki hated them for it. They loved Tony, but not one of them knew him- not that they had the right to.

"Some people think it's stubborn to continue the expo. Stubborn is what's kept me alive all these years, and if stubborn means not backing down because of a few wackjobs then damn right I'm stubborn." Tony was saying to exaggerated applause, voice amplified by some mechanical piece set just off side his mouth. Loki couldn't see more than his profile (he and Pepper were waiting just off stage, watching what they could while the latter dealt with business and the former with locating Schmidt. No signs of him or Hammer, no matter how closely he scanned the crowd with sight or magic) but he seemed to be enjoying himself.

"_Some_ people tell me I'm war profiteering and I ask them who the hell we're going to war against?" More cheering, though Loki couldn't see why, and Pepper leaned in helpfully to explain the recent lack of violence Iron Man had brought about. Well, rather a useful invention, wasn't it? "Some people tell me it's my ego gone crazy-" Pepper gave an annoyed stir beside him but did no more than purse her lips and 'mm-hmm' at whatever was being said on the phone, "and those people are completely right but that's not stopping me!"

A louder cheer than ever. Oh, yes, the people _loved_ Tony- his worst arrogance, his sarcastic retorts, his violent genius and his metal suit- but they couldn't see anything in that smile but laughter, pride. None of the hatred for his own words, or the hurt at what he had turned into a self-mocking joke. They saw Stark, not Tony, and perhaps it was hypocrisy, considering how long it had taken Loki to realize the difference, but he was well on the verge of aiming the weapon waiting for demonstration at the crowd rather than leaving it directed toward nothing but air as it was.

That might ruin the effects of the presentation, however, so he merely waited back for his 'time to shine', as Tony had so poetically phrased it. The man went on for awhile with his theatrical speech ("I'm going to install a mute button in that man," Pepper muttered once she was off the call) until the crowd had practically roared itself hoarse. "But you don't care about any of that, do ya?" A bit of laughter, but it was clear the majority agreed. "So what do you want?"

Tony was good at riling up a crowd, threw his hands into the air and beckoned for their response, not faltering even when it seemed each member of the crowd was shouting their own answer. (Including, Loki was not at all pleased to hear, one woman who called for him to take of his shirt and got a suggestive wink in response.) Until somebody called above the majority, "Light some shit up!"

A roar of assent, and Tony lowered his hands. "Assuming you don't mean that literally that's exactly what I plan to do. And now if my lovely assistant would bring me the remote?" He turned to face Loki, one hand extended and a bemused smile playing at his face, then pouted when the god only raised an eyebrow in response. "Hey, lovely assistant, come on out. We agreed you'd cooperate if I didn't make you wear the bunny suit."

Pepper shot him a curious look and Loki only shrugged-not bothering to confirm or deny the conversation- and flicked on his own microphone as Tony had taught him to do. "We also agreed I'm not your assistant, though I won't argue that I am rather lovely."

More laughter from the audience and a few cat calls, one guy who apparently didn't bother enough to keep up with celebrity news (there, at least _some_ mortals had common sense) calling out when the voices dimmed, "Was that a _dude_?"

"I'm ninety-nine percent sure." Tony replied without turning away. "Okay, not assistant. Come on, babe, can't run the thing without the remote. Honey. Sweetheart. Darling. I'm just gonna keep rattling off degrading pet names until you get out here, you know. Cutie. Cupca-"

"If you complete that sentence I'll just fire the thing at you." Loki warned calmly, unpocketing the remote as he stepped forward onto the stage (prompting more cheers, catcalls, and a few grating whistles that made his hands clench into fists). Tony seemed unconcerned by the threat and only moved to meet him halfway, swinging and arm around his waist and pulling him in for a flashy, camera-inducing kiss.

Probably he'd meant to pull away immediately, but Loki's arm took Tony in a similar grip and his tongue traced the edge of the man's lips, prompting a slight gap that let him roam the other's mouth with his tongue. Somebody shouted, "_Breathe!"_ and they pulled apart at last, Tony looking slightly flustered in an endearing way and winking at the crowd.

"Right, that's not the weapon, but I'm pretty sure he could win a war with something like that." Good lord, how tacky. Loki raised an eyebrow but Tony hurried on before he could mock the comment, slipping his hand into the god's and drawing away the remote. "Now if I might divert your attention to the giant steel pillar in the sky, it's about damn time we got on with the point of this whole show!"

More raucous applause that made Loki's head pound, but he only turned his eyes up to watch the not-entirely-dramatic revelation of their weeks of hard work. The weapon really did look little more than a pillar, but when Tony hit a few keys on the remote-and the crowd dutifully fell silent to watch- it seemed to unfold, blossoming like a deadly flower into nine thin metal spikes, high above the ground where the weapon had been set up so as to avoid any danger. Not to mention any number of other overbearing safety precautions Tony had insisted on.

The tips of each metal spike shimmered red for a moment, and then the giant flower spun in a few seconds and hundreds of cycles as beams of what Tony explained were pure energy (magic, Loki retorted, and he always took to pouting and muttering that it was _science_) shot out and tilted in a minor arc as Tony inputted a few brief commands, all the while spinning rapidly. The room had been built with this purpose in mind (for viewing weapons enclosed in an area high above the viewers, under which lay the stage they were on then) but despite its reinforced walls the beams' paths had left searing marks in their wake.

No moment of stunned silence, nothing quite so tacky as that, but the crowd practically exploded into cheering and deafening roars of approval at what Tony had claimed was just one of his suit's weapons, enlarged a few thousand times over. He looked up at Loki with a playful grin and kissed him quickly on the cheek, practically had to shout into his ear just to be heard. "That'll catch his attention, huh?"

* * *

><p>Tony ended up giving another speech that night, this time in a far less radical atmosphere. He had a glass of wine in hand as he did it and no microphone, nor even a stage- just the attention of every company owner or representative who'd merited an invite to some opening night banquet he had insisted on. Mostly he just talked about his reasons for opening the expo again (all entirely fabricated), his hopes for what it would accomplish (truthful, but omitting quite a bit) and thanking them all for coming (as if there weren't countless others wishing to be there).<p>

Loki paid him little attention, really. He was far more interested in the shy young man who claimed to be a representative of Lernae that approached him halfway through, offering a pale hand and letting out a breath of relief when 'Luke' took it calmly. "Mr. Schmidt offers his apologies that he couldn't be here himself. He'd like me to assure you he will make sure to be here as soon as he clears up a few business measures back in California." The man's voice was quiet, nervous, but surprisingly deep.

"So long as he trusts his affairs in your hands I see no reason why I should object." Loki found himself studying every minor aspect of the man's appearance, searching for some threat in his stance- and saw nothing but the embarrassment of one who'd been given too much responsibility too early. Hardly a capital offense, but what a nuisance to be dealing with, really. "Has he given you the honor of knowing just what this private engagement is?"

If the boy caught the mockery in his tone he did an admirable job of hiding it, only shaking his head bashfully. "No sir, but then again he rarely does. You know how he is."

Yes, Loki did know, likely far better than the boy did himself. Tony had at last reached the dregs of his speech, which he washed down not with a drink for himself but an offer of his glass to Pepper, who only sighed and accepted a minimal sip of the liquid once he'd prodded and whined for a full minute. "He saw the weapon, yes? Did he tell you when he plans on taking it?" Loki wondered without a hint of shame, merely smiling and nodding to a passing investor who seemed to disregard his suspicions based on this casual attitude and only returned the gesture.

The boy, however, gulped and looked around to ensure nobody was listening- which, of course, only meant they were, now that he'd called attention to the two of them. Lovely. "No. He um… he told me he would call you when he chose, and would like you to be prepared to help at all times."

No doubt the order hadn't sounded nearly so polite from the source itself, but Loki didn't demand an exact recount of the conversation. "Tell him I will be. Though the more people who arrive the tighter security becomes, so I would advise him not to wait all that long." A waiter (catching just the tail end of the comment, luckily for his own sake) offered him a glass of champagne on a ridiculously bright polished platter, but Loki waved him off. Midgardian alcohol could be unbearably sweet.

"Of course. Mr. Schmidt also asked me to inform you that Hammer would be attending. I'm to ask if there's any problem with that?" The comment seemed to mean almost nothing from an uncomfortable young man, but Loki cringed inwardly. Schmidt knew how much he hated the man, and of course his presence could serve no purpose. He was being mocked with this, told to comply unless he wanted to take the risk of defying some useless order from the man who considered himself to be is employer.

He didn't need to form an answer, however. A crash of splintering glass cut off any reply he could have made, and silence fell over the assembled, politely subdued voices of the guests so suddenly it may have almost been comical. Loki felt nothing but apprehension despite this and shoved all thoughts of feigned business aside to turn and discover the source of the noise.

Tony's glass lay in shards at his feet, the deep red of the wine bleeding across the ground and staining the gaps between the tiles red. His hand was still held as if carrying the drink, shaking slightly, and his skin was shooting a gray sort of pale, eyes staring forward unfocused and veins too prevalent against his skin. The man he'd been talking with was staring on in confusion, trying to draw his attention, but Tony seemed to have no mind for him and only reached with one hand in a vain attempt to support himself against a table top, almost immediately losing his grip and crashing to the ground. He hit the floor and seemed to flinch from the pain but afterward lay, unmoving, against the stained tile.

The scattered guests froze-even Pepper able to do no more than stare in shock- and none had recovered until Loki was already across the room, bent at Tony's side and reaching out gingerly to grab hold of his shoulder. He didn't flinch away, but far from reassured Loki was only prompted by the stillness to move more quickly, shifting Tony onto his back and ignoring the broken glass digging into his knee. The man seemed entirely unaware of his presence, eyes glossed over with pain and, as a tentative touch revealed, fever that left him in a cold sweat. His lips were parted but he wasn't drawing in breath, seemed to be choking on the effort- struggling to draw in air without any effect.

Loki's body responded without his mind's say so (or he'd have frozen, done nothing but lock up and stare as he watched Tony dying), automatically moving to press his hands where he'd been taught they belonged, tilting Tony's head back slightly. He took a deep breath and pressed his lips to Tony's, offered him the air he seemed unable to draw for himself. No immediate effect, but once he'd repeated the process once more and pressed his palms against Tony's chest almost frantically, applied pressure that would likely hurt but he had no _time_ to care about that, he had his response.

Tony gasped for breath like a drowning man, sat halfway up with his eyes wide open, breathing in desperate gulps that subsided quickly to rapid, shallow swallows of air. Far from calm, but preferable to the silence of before, yet that quickly deteriorated further until his eyes were half-lidded and he started to sway, prevented from hitting the ground again only by Loki's reflex. He was even paler than before, and through his dress shirt Loki could see the reactor stuttering with effort as he lowered Tony carefully to lay flat.

More so than his concern he felt guilt swell up in his throat, and he swallowed back to emotion to no avail. There may have been tears burning his eyes or perhaps that was just the panic, but either way he couldn't care- the reactor's response could only mean one thing. Clearly the drink was to blame, Tony wasn't having a mere heart attack, but his suspicions had been roused when he recalled Pepper drinking from the same to no effect. Coupled with the device in his heart flickering that meant the poison, if that's what had caused this, must have been designed to attack the reactor itself. Which couldn't be done unless someone knew how the machine worked.

And Loki had given one to Schmidt.

Tony seemed to be fully unconscious now, if he had been at all coherent before, and a whimper of pain drew Loki's attention away from who was to blame. Carefully, gently almost, he brought Tony's head to rest against his lap then kissed the man's sweat-beaded forehead and brushed his bangs back, running a comforting hand through his hair and murmuring assurances against his heated skin. "Don't worry, Darling, you'll be all right. Calm down, hush, Darling." He'd never called Tony anything more than his name before, not besides in jest, but the words of comfort came naturally, and he made no move to prevent them.

The guests were still staring, other than Pepper who had hurried forward but remained standing with a look of shock and horror. Loki glared at them, felt panic and frustration wearing out all pretense and patience, and turned to look them all over when he spoke. "What are you doing? Call for help, _now_!" A few seemed startled by the sudden, harsh words, and as soon as he saw one pulling out a phone he turned back to Tony, continued to whisper useless words that seemed to take the edge of hysteria out of both their breathing.

Tony's skin was cold, now, but there was still a touch of life in it. Loki blinked back tears and reminded himself that there was no time for emotion now, not if he wanted to keep it there. He wasn't on Asgard, where the worst of injuries could be diverted to a healer, and if he didn't pay the utmost attention Tony might die. The dimming light of the reactor could easily have told him as much, if not the unsteady breath and the way he seemed to shiver weakly, whether from pain or because his body missed the heat his heart was struggling to pump throughout his body.

Schmidt had some say in this. Loki felt a touch of regret, burning hatred for the man and the loss of a potential ally, but far stronger was a calculating fury. Motivation to find him, discover how he'd done this and make everyone involved pay with more than their lives, subjugate them to torture only a god could bring-

The boy. Loki's head shot up and scanned the crowd quickly, but there was no sign of him. Schmidt's representative had vanished. "Where is he? The boy, Lernae's boy!" He hadn't spoken with such level of anger since battling Thor, his voice little more than a snarl as he felt tears fighting free from his eyes despite his efforts.

Nobody seemed to have an answer, and Loki turned almost pleadingly to Pepper, prepared to demand she find him _somehow_ or face his fury for it. She was already on the phone, however, demanding security perform a lockdown of the building _immediately_ and allow nobody to pass without her say so. Yes, she had the authority, she was Tony Stark's assistant, so just _do it._

He should have stopped the fool the moment he'd realized Tony's heart was the problem. Loki cursed under his breath and swallowed down what was practically a physical pain, kissing Tony's forehead again and holding him as close as he dared. Mortals were fragile, how had he forgotten? Look how easily they could break. "I'm sorry, Darling." Loki wasn't the type to place blame on himself, and he wasn't apologizing as if he were at fault-but he was sorry, genuinely so, that Tony was feeling any sort of pain at all.

And he could do absolutely nothing about it except hold him there, desperately, and try to silence his moans of pain with reassurances he was for once powerless to act upon.

**A/N: So um. –Hugs Tony- Sorry I'm hurting all these characters? At least I haven't physically bullied Loki in awhile, right?**

**Anyway, I hope this chapter didn't seem too awkward to read. I've been going back and trying to fix it up constantly, especially bits that seem out of character, but I still feel like this was… sort of off, I guess? Maybe because it's like midnight and I've gotten no sleep all week. Anyway, reviews are infinitely appreciated as ever, especially if something seemed off to you! OOC, awkward writing, anything of the sort- I always appreciate it when people let me know about my mistakes. **


	18. Winding A Clockwork Heart

**A/N: I really have no idea why my brain is pumping out new chapters so slowly, but here you go, number eighteen. We're getting pretty close to twenty, aren't we? Maybe I'll do something special for that, to make up for all these time gaps and just because you guys are all so awesome.**

**I apologize for the minor cliffhanger last chapter, I'm a mean lady. Yup. **

**Disclaimer: Marvel, and all its characters and ideas, don't belong to me nor am I gaining any tangible profit from this story.**

Tony never let an event with his name on it be run poorly- with the number of people and nature of the demonstrations involved in the Stark Expo (2.0) there were enough ambulances on site that help had come within mere minutes of being called for. Loki hadn't moved from Tony's side during that time, and felt no relief when they rushed in after Pepper made it very clear to the security that by no means were _paramedics_ to be included in the lockdown. Just fear that translated into impatient anger- fear that whatever treatment they could give would come too late.

Tony had become paler and colder, drastically so, in just that short space of time. Loki had cradled his body to his chest in an attempt to give him some heat, to do what his heart was failing to do for him, but his lips remained white and his skin even more so. He was still breathing, but barely enough to move his chest even at close inspection, and the light of the reactor was little more than what a candle might offer.

Loki'd never been a healer, had never care nor reason to study more than the basics of medicine and the like- yet he was reluctant to turn Tony's care over to the mortals that came running in, asking him to move so they could take him to an ambulance. Get him breathing again, try and jump start his heart (try, just try- they couldn't guarantee anything). "I'm staying with him." Loki warned, ready to throw aside his human guise and let the threat of magic convince these men if they dared to protest.

But the paramedic only nodded his consent. "Of course, sir. Just let us take care of him from here- you're welcome to ride with him in the ambulance." He held Loki's gaze even as the god glared up at him-probably well used to dealing with distrust and the like, the healers on Asgard were always the same, so ceaselessly calm- and only moved when he'd been shown a wary nod.

Still Loki was reluctant to relinquish Tony's care, and refused to move any further away from him than what was necessary for the doctors to do their work. Pepper joined him as soon as she was done rushing through some business with security- the god didn't bother paying the guards so much as a passing glance, he could and would deal with the issue of punishment for this when he'd taken care that Tony would survive- and as Tony was brought past the crowd of flustered and fearful engineers they were right beside him. They'd hooked him up to some sort of mask that Loki didn't like the look of, but when she caught the way he was eyeing it Pepper managed a smile he knew would have never seen the light of day if he weren't there.

"It's to help his breathing." She explained. She was afraid- as terrified as he was that Tony's heart was going to fade before they could bring him to the hospital and find some substitute until a spare core for the rector could be flown in, but fearful of him, too. Reasonable. Loki wanted blood for what had been done to Tony- and if someone gave him cause to take it before he'd made it back to California and Johan Schmidt then he wouldn't hesitate to act out against them.

He held Pepper's gaze for a flash then nodded and turned his attention back to Tony- watched in the hopes some color might return with the level rise and fall of his chest, some life crack open those eyes and form even one of his usually endless repertoire of snap comments. Yet there was little change of any sort until they were on the ambulance-doctors rushed about in a blur of conditioned uniforms, machines and wires and needles- and under way. Loki knew he'd been to a hospital before but he'd been decidedly unconscious for the entirety of the event- of course he'd known more or less it would only be a matter of time before he had to deal with one for Tony's sake, and yet he hadn't expected him to be in danger at a _party_. Certainly not one with SHIELD assisting security.

Pepper seemed stunned, shaken, by everything that had happened and without the distraction of business or responsibility seemed in no mood to talk- which suited Loki's purpose just fine. He didn't feel like dealing with her and if he hadn't known Tony would be comforted by her presence would have demanded she stay behind. Ensured it, if he had to, with magic. Magic he hadn't used for anything but _trinkets_ and now that there was due cause to use it there was nothing he could do, at least not until he'd seen Tony to safety.

And then he would find Schmidt, or Hammer, or that boy they'd hired to face his threat in their stead. Loki was not going to pretend to be some mere mortal engineer after an insult like this- he was a god, and he was powerful, and it was high time that human fool came around to realizing that.

No time for thoughts of revenge, however, when the paramedics had done all they could with what they had and were pulling Pepper aside to ask her all the medical formalities. Leaving Loki to himself, for a brief moment, before a choked sound of panic and pain drew his mind back to Tony, and without much conscious thought in that direction he'd rushed to the man's side and bent to press a cautious kiss to his forehead. He was still hooked up to a machine to help him breathe, but no longer one that covered the majority of his face, giving Loki room to brush a hand over his cheek and whisper into his ear that he was going to be all right.

Odd. There was little result in his words but a slight ease to Tony's fear, apparent even in unconscious, and yet Loki didn't feel he'd be able to stop. He hadn't comforted another person in... years, at the very least. Even when Odin had collapsed on the vault's steps he'd stopped before touching even his hand and drawn back, called in guards to care for his father instead. It was too easy to believe that his touch was neither needed nor wanted and he was afraid to offer it. Except for with Tony, who was fascinated by the worst of Loki and admired his best- a man with a body bound to fail him even more quickly than a mortal's usually would, and yet still providing some sort of reassurance to a god even in unconscious.

Almost ironic, really. A human's body was a weak one, Tony's even more so than average. All it took was one little push, some abrupt outer force drawn in, and they were at the mercy of another's skills to keep them alive. And here he, a god who was so much stronger than that, was kept calm only by the touch and presence of one such mortal.

Loki harbored hopes throughout the entire ride that Tony's eyes would flutter open, that the whimpered words and gasps of pain would turn into something coherent, but he was continually disappointed. Eventually Pepper finished speaking with the doctor and came to stand beside him, closer to her employer, and though the desire flared within him he held back from forcing her away.

Loki hated her more than ever in these moments, forced to suffer together in the wake of Tony's uncertain fate. Not mere bloodlust for Schmidt projected on to the nearest, recognizable catalyst- real burning hatred that flashed at the edge of his vision, flared up with her every movement or sound, nearly took him over when she bent as he was doing and brushed back Tony's sweat-slick bangs. Loki wanted to kill her. To burn that hair, so brilliantly red, and make it light up with the fire it imitated, mocked-or to delegate the suffering that had overtaken Tony onto her. Maybe then she would have a real reason to be here, a _right_ to show sympathy or pity for pain and weakness she didn't understand.

Tony had taken care of him when he was injured, now Loki would repay the favor- and if that meant tolerating Pepper he would sit there, in silence but for reassurances that fell on deaf ears, and count away the seconds that kept Tony from the men and machines that would give him life.

There were already reporters and cameras gathered outside the hospital, but none made any move to ask questions- simply stood outside blabbing what little they knew of the story for recorded benefit, letting the image of Tony being wheeled toward the building on a stretcher accent their newscast. Loki ignored them as best he could, though one or two may have experienced unexplained technical difficulties, and followed after Tony with Pepper still stubbornly by his side- only to be stopped before they could make it past the lobby.

"I'm sorry, but we can't let you visit Mr. Stark until we've gotten his condition stable. He may need surgery, and any added stress or distraction for either him or the staff could be dangerous right now." A paramedic, detached from the rest of his team as they took their patient through the ER.

"Surgery won't do him any good. It's his reactor, you can't touch that, you don't understand it like he does. You could damage it, just let us talk to him-" Pepper insisted, seeming to fall on sympathetic ears, and Loki ran through about ten different things to be said and four different ways to say them that would encourage the man to step aside and allow them on their way.

But no. "Very well. We'll wait then, call us the moment we can see him." The paramedic nodded, relieved to avoid an argument, and hurried off to join the others while the red haired girl turned to Loki with shock and anger. He ignored her though, a plan sparked by her off hand words- and as much as he wanted to be with Tony right then, he could do far more good away from him. "Call SHIELD. I want Fury and Coulson here by the time I return."

"Return? Where are you going?" She'd reached for her phone, however, trusting in his desire to keep Tony safe despite her suspicion of the god himself.

"California."

"What? You don't have any money, and I doubt you know how to drive. The latest flight won't leave for another hour, you won't be back in time."

"You're talking to a god, in case you've forgotten." Which it seemed everyone had, even those who'd already been reminded that a few thousand years of absence was nothing to insist that the deities mankind had once accepted were far from gone. Pepper had seen some of what he could do, she understood yet didn't quite appreciate his abilities, but what good would there be in holding him back?

"…Okay. I'll call." She agreed, and Loki only nodded without bothering to check that she was doing so. There were a few other people in the E.R. but he paid them no mind- one was in too much apparent pain to notice him, and the others either consoling him or making medical inquiries.

He took a step forward, and the world flashed- his pace leaving the ground in Las Vegas and landing him in the mechanic drive of Tony's garage.

Teleporting was always one of the more troublesome brands of magic, there was nothing easy about virtually dissolving your form and replacing it somewhere else, and even if Loki had been fully recovered he would have found the effort to move such a distance taxing. As it was his feet barely hit solid ground before his knees had buckled underneath him, and only by supporting himself against the cluttered edge of Tony's workbench did Loki manage to avoid collapse. As it was he sunk halfway to the ground, felt breath fighting against him as he managed deep swallows of air, and it was some time before the pounding in his head ceased to the point that his vision straightened out.

Some time, but far less than a manual or technological journey would have taken. So long as he moved slowly Loki could avoid stumbling, and within a few moments had regained his footing and was more or less steady in his stance. "Tony is dying." He knew J.A.R.V.I.S. must have been questioning his presence, but no matter that he only heard the tail-end of his latest inquiry, the response wouldn't have changed. He had no time for formalities, certainly not with something incapable of offense. "He needs a new heart. He must have built another core- where is it kept?"

A brief moment of silence from the computer. "The latest core model is built from an element Mr. Stark synthesized himself… only enough was created to form one core. He has kept some of the palladium model in his desk, yet the toxic effect would kill him just as surely as being without it might, if his heart is already failing." Almost a touch of regret, concern programmed into his speech- fear for the man who had created him?

"How do I repair it, then?" His tone was firm, that was good. Breathing already returning to normal as well- before long he'd be able to make the trip back, though he'd certainly sleep well through the night once he had.

"Either a substitute element must be created, or a new source of power must be found."

Loki cursed under his breath- this was a problem he didn't understand, a problem that required mechanical know-how. He'd expected to be playing delivery boy, not mad scientist, and yet if they had no other choice…

That weapon he'd taken from Schmidt's building so long ago was powerful enough. Whatever had been running it should be able to serve to replace a metal core, and yet he couldn't vouch for the exact workings of the reactor. Not that he needed to, with J.A.R.V.I.S.' programs to handle that for him. He was still weary from the trip, but it took hardly any energy to reach into that space between worlds where the weapon was stored and draw it out. He'd have broken the thing apart to get at the source if he needed to, but a brief inspection showed him the power source was merely attached to one end, and with a bit of magic to make the metal more willing he held the small fluorescent-blue orb carefully between the thumb and forefinger of one hand.

"Would this do?" Loki demanded, holding it up for a moment, though he knew there wasn't much point in it. J.A.R.V.I.S. could see and scan the burning piece of energy from anywhere within the house- just as a few flashing lights from the main screen of the computer indicated he was currently doing.

"That system should serve as a viable replacement for the reactor's current core. Yet there is no way of testing for negative side effects." It concluded at long last- not entirely reassuring, but Loki was never one to shy away from a risk, and knowing that Tony wasn't either did nothing to increase his caution.

"Of course there is. You learn by doing, J.A.R.V.I.S." Loki tested his weight, found he could walk without falling, and undid and tossed aside his jacket in one fluid motion. Normally he'd have stopped to wonder at how he'd become much more efficient with removing his clothes in just a month of being together with Tony, be he didn't have that moment. "You're going to walk me through turning this into something the reactor can use, and you're going to do it quickly. I don't want to hear about risks, or supplies- I'll make what we need and if we need it, we use it. Now, begin."

* * *

><p>It took precisely sixty four minutes and forty three seconds for Loki to form a casing similar to Tony's current vibranium core that would both accept and utilize the energy Schmidt had so helpfully manipulated into the tangible form held in that weapon. Twenty eight minutes and twelve seconds <em>more<em> than the time he'd been aiming for, than the minimum he would have given himself for Tony to survive without a fully functioning reactor. Assuming the device hadn't burnt out long ago, in which case his modified core would come far too late, and he couldn't risk teleporting to see that through until he'd dealt with a more satisfying side to this issue.

So he formed the air about him into breath and life, only as artificial as J.A.R.V.I.S.-which was to say, hardly at all- and sent it off with a black and white bird nearly half as large as the nose of your average plane and far, far faster. It would startle anyone who saw it, likely give the waiting reporters a scare, but hopefully Pepper would have the sense to take what it carried when it was offered to her.

Apparently the affects of uncertainty were rather obvious in his expression, because J.A.R.V.I.S. addressed him in an almost reassuring manner before the bird had even fully vanished in its flight. "According to the most recent news reports Mr. Stark is still alive if not well, sir. Would you like me to patch a call through to Miss Potts?"

"No." Loki had no desire to deal with her, even if she could give him news about Tony- and though he was no longer blinded with fury he was angrier than ever, simply because he had no explanation for his sudden, burning dislike. "What's the time?"

"Eleven p.m. and forty six minutes."

Not yet midnight. Hammer would still be in his office-usually at this time struggling to repair whatever mess Schmidt had decided should be his responsibility for the day. Tempting as it was to simply appear in the man's office he held off, reminding himself that to do so would be to reveal more than was safe, and yet couldn't bring himself to wait for a cab. Teleporting to Las Vegas would have been extremely taxing, whereas a trip across town would be… less so, if not entirely comfortable.

He was more than willing to accept discomfort. Within moments Loki had appeared inside the mostly abandoned, not-so-hallowed halls of Lernae's primary business front, directly underneath the only camera that could otherwise have even hoped to catch sight of his sudden appearance. He hadn't bothered to put on his jacket-only realized what a mess his appearance seemed when he reached out to open a door and spotted mostly bare arms showing the signs of his mechanical work- and would have certainly attracted attention… if there were anyone there to pay it.

Anyone other than Hammer, whose opinion Loki cared less than ever about. The door was locked, but that was no great challenge to him, and he made no attempt to be gentle when he threw it open. Hammer was busy arguing with someone over the phone, trailing off mid sentence as he looked up, haggard and startled, to register that "Luke" had just barged into his office but not, apparently, recognizing the mask of anger that had replaced his usual calm.

Whatever was happening on the phone must have been stressful enough that his usual false charm didn't even bleed through his tone. "What are you doing? You can't just-"

Loki had neither the time nor the mind to listen to his complaints, and without a thought his hand had enclosed Hammer's neck in an unrelenting grip and slammed him up against the nearest wall with such force that his glasses slipped off, hitting Loki's arm once before hitting the ground and cracking. He made a choked sound of surprise then scrambled on instinct to pry the god's hand away, wide-eyed and genuinely baffled by the assault, but most of all fearful.

"I'm sorry-" He attempted, voice cracking and arms staying as they were, feet barely touching the ground, efforts amounting to nothing but increased fury in Loki's eyes. "You can go… wherever you want."

There was a voice, loud and demanding, echoing from the phone he had dropped. Loki crushed the device under his heel without looking away, leaning in ever closer to glare at Hammer, forcing back the urge to rip his throat out with only the greatest effort. Now that he was dealing with the (_a_, Schmidt wasn't so easily reached, however) source of Tony's pain he was blind with anger, could barely form a comprehensive sentence. "You- what you _did_ to him… Why shouldn't I just kill you now?" He demanded at long last, not quite so eloquent as was his usual standard.

Hammer only stared at him through a mess of dislodged hair and seemed to realize that his wasn't an empty threat, whatever he'd next meant to say dying out into a few half-complete words. "I don't… I did-what did I-what?" He seemed genuinely confused and was certainly genuinely frightened, attempting to shrink away from Loki's glare but with his hand and the wall both barring him from doing so there was little hope of success.

Loki could see his mind working, debating against making the threat of a call to security (his eyes shot to the desk, no doubt remembering the alarm underneath it, and realized he could never reach so far) and struggling for some other option. Clearly not reasoning, since the god was well aware he appeared well beyond accepting that-and not without reason- and how successful could he possibly be when he didn't seem to know what the purpose was behind the assault?

"You used that boy of yours at the expo to poison Tony." Loki explained through clenched teeth, practically bristling with anger that formed its way into magic and burnt at the touch. He could see Hammer cringe, heard him swear in pain, but had no sympathy for his lack of understanding. "_Well?_"

The man could only stammer desperately, having given up on attempting to break free and now pressed against the wall with his hands raised innocently on his either side. Loki's grip had tightened to the point that speech would elude Hammer if he attempted it, and yet the god's impatience for an answer was enough that if he didn't have his answer within _moments_ he would burn a hole through that arrogant tongue, break his smug smile-

"Release him, Lauson. He still has use to me yet." Only that voice could have redirected Loki's rage, and without a moment's pretense he dropped his hold on Hammer-ignored the man as he slumped to the ground, coughing but in no apparent danger of death- and steeled himself to face Schmidt before actually doing so.

The man must have anticipated his arrival, and Loki saw his sudden appearance came as no surprise. Well, not so sudden- he'd spent long enough in Tony's workshop that a plane trip from Las Vegas was plausible enough. He stood in the doorway, as calm and disinterested as ever, hands clasped behind his back as he studied Hammer with some curiosity but not a touch of concern, whether genuine or otherwise.

Loki's body urged him forward to detain and destroy Schmidt before the man could gain any hold on the situation, but his mind had no desire to listen. Rather than curses, threats, or words of power and blood he only managed to demand to know, "Why?"

His fists were shaking with anger and barely retained bloodlust, but his voice was clear and perhaps a little desperate because for once he didn't _know._ He'd had a very definite handle on Lernae, SHIELD, Schmidt, Fury- not once had his intuition failed him in his minor manipulation of the mortals. And yet he had never anticipated an assassination attempt, abrupt as it was, and not against _Tony_, whose mind and influence Schmidt believed he had some degree of control over. Why would he give that up?

"Stark was a liability." And Loki wasn't so far run by emotion that he missed the significance of the past tense- Schmidt thought his plan had succeeded. And for all he could know maybe it had. "The plans you collected and that weapon of his will be more than enough. Anything more we could have gotten from him would have been at the risk of drawing the attention of Iron Man." He held Loki's gaze with absolute calm, and his lack of shame was so blatant that for a moment the god could only stare back, reminding himself that Schmidt didn't know just _who_ he'd confronted. Whose boyfriend he'd hurt, all for the purpose those eyes made very clear- they were testing _him_, pushing him further and further to find the edge so they could watch him fall. "Some sacrifices are necessary, Lauson."

Loki should have killed him then. Ripped him from the inside out, melted that mask to his skin and burnt through it, but only a god could do such things and according to his current work with Schmidt he wasn't a god. An ordinary man, who could benefit very highly from misleading Hydra into believing Tony Stark was dead (misleading, of _course_ it was misleading, just that), and therefore rather than attack allowed anxiety and exaggerated grief to overtake his expression.

"_Sacrifices? _Why him? Tony- he-" Loki's always been known to his friends as a disturbingly good actor, yet he couldn't claim that the tears brimming his vision, infrequently spilling over, or the pain that choked his voice were entirely fabricated. "He was my… And you _killed_-"

His voice broke (that, he could say at least, was false- he'd have shouted Schmidt down until he ran out of breath if 'Luke' had been willing) and he let the words die there, unsurprised to see no change in Schmidt's bored expression. Hammer, though, had slowed in his coughing enough to speak, looking between the two men (who were _more_ than that) with genuine surprise. "Stark's _dead_? You killed him?"

He didn't seem appalled by the idea so much as frightened by it, and neither Schmidt nor Loki paid him any attention. The former contemplated the latter for a moment, and Loki decided a bit more of an emotional play was in order. He stopped meeting Schmidt's gaze and rose a hand to smother a sob (what a pathetic display, thank the Nine none were watching his half-ruse) before sinking into the chair across Hammer's desk and hiding his over-done anguish behind hands that had forgotten to tremble. He quickly amended that, fine tuning his performance, and waited.

"I expect you for work tomorrow, Mr. Lauson. We still have a project to complete." Schmidt said after a few moment's silence, but Loki remained as he was. "Come, Hammer. Leave him."

Hammer coughed again, voice cracking when he muttered some frightened assent, and there was a brief shuffling as he rose to his feet. Loki smirked, hidden by his hands, at what was likely to closest thing to a display of kindness he could ever expect to see from Schmidt- not like he planned on giving the man much opportunity for any more, of course. But he had to see what he was planning, what other weapons he'd prepared and what size an army he had prepared to… well, that was the issue. World domination seemed far too cliché, and a personal vendetta against America too inconvenient. Neither would be possible, as it was, with the resources Loki knew Schmidt already possessed- so best to see what he had hidden, and who, first. Besides that, he would lose his pull with SHIELD and that wasn't something he could practically allow himself to abandon.

Such a shame, too, Loki thought as he waited for the door to slam shut with a blatant show of force. He really would have counted the man as a powerful ally- and then he'd gone and ruined _everything_ with that one false move. Their uneasily partnership. His best chance at grasping power. The quickest way to destroy SHIELD.

Tony.

* * *

><p>Unsurprisingly Loki arrived to find Tony's room blockaded from the few reporters and fans who had managed to sneak their way into the building itself, yet the SHIELD agents at the door didn't even hesitate before allowing him admission. Once he was inside came the halt, Coulson cornering him almost immediately with business-like intent.<p>

Loki didn't attempt his usual calm, nor did he ignore the agent completely. "I haven't done anything to damage your interests, and if you want to know more it will _wait_." He snarled before the man could be given a chance to speak, glaring him down and receiving a brief nod a moment later.

Coulson stepped aside, smart enough to keep his silence, though Loki had already started forward so quickly he'd have been knocked over if he hesitated a moment longer. Tony was still attached to that oxygen mask and little had been done to restore any life to his skin, yet the reactor was lit aglow and he no longer seemed to be in any obvious pain. Pepper stood up-having been kneeling beside her employer's bedside- when she noticed Loki's approach, making room for him to take her place before clearing her throat.

"I don't know what you did, but it worked. SHIELD brought in a doctor and they say he'll be fine, his body just needs rest and time to accept the new core." She explained with obvious relief, though definite exhaustion he felt no pity for. "We don't know what to do about the bird, though."

Loki didn't bother to look- he'd spotted the thing, tall and proud, waiting calmly atop the back of a chair and cleaning its feathers when he arrived. "Open the window, let it out." He suggested without emotion. He had no interest in the bird anymore, now that Tony was apparently going to survive and he could pull his focus away from panic and uncertainty and reinstate his efforts to keep the man comfortable.

There was a rather pressing matter to deal with, though, and business or not time wouldn't allow this shift in priorities. "Have you made an announcement about his health yet?" Demanded Loki as his hand again found its way to Tony's hair, brushing aside what had fallen loose then finding that familiar soothing rhythm and stroking it back.

"No. SHIELD thought it should wait." It was obvious in her tone that Pepper harbored as much dislike for them as Loki did, and he felt his dislike for her slip away minutely. "They're practically turning this into a PR stunt- they won't let me dismiss any of the reporters."

"And I'm sure Mr. Laufeyson understands exactly why." Coulson may have retained his silence, but the Director Fury (Loki'd barely even _noticed_ him, and found it hard to keep his hand from clenching into a fist around Tony's hair) had no such scruples. "Schmidt thinks he's won already, doesn't he?"

Loki didn't respond immediately other than to shift Tony's blankets where the man had managed to push them aside. A habit he retained even in unconscious rather than natural sleep, apparently. "SHIELD's doctor will know to keep his mouth shut. Tell the public he died, I'm sure you can manage a few tears for their benefit." Judging by the red of her eyes, anyway.

"You want to pretend Tony's dead?" Pepper sounded more weary, reluctant, than she did shocked. "I can't do that without his approval."

"Do it." Loki hadn't spoken to her with such obvious fury before, and when he turned he saw she'd faltered, taken aback by the sudden vehemence he was showing. "Do you think I was making a suggestion? Get on with it."

And she stood firm, visibly steeled herself against his gaze and folded her arms over her chest, meeting his gaze and shrinking back slightly but not shifting away from it. "No. It's his decision."

"Schmidt will move to kill him if he realizes he failed here, and I can't guarantee I will manage to stop him so cease spouting your pathetic sense of justice and do what you're told, woman." Loki rose to his feet and rounded on Pepper, bringing Coulson a few steps further into the room and even drawing a narrowed eye from Fury. Neither did more than let those warnings stand, however, seeing as the god hadn't resorted to outright violence yet.

Still she looked so surprised, and that only made him all the angrier. Did she think he was as mild mannered as Schmidt believed him to be? Just some unfortunate young man who'd gotten himself injured and yes, he held plenty of power, but lecture him once in the car and he won't misuse it, certainly not. No- he was a god, and a vengeful one at that, and if she'd been fool enough to mistake his so far kindness as genuine then it was high time he made to correct her. His pride didn't mind his games, in fact he never felt more than amused that he'd managed to trick them all with his silver tongue, but if Tony was the concern than it was time the pleasantries were over.

She didn't back down, though, and of course seemed almost on the verge of actually _retorting._ Loki drew up straight, summoned magic unseen to his hand despite the amount he'd used already in his long-distance teleportation, and steeled himself to just break an arm or a leg, really, if she was fool enough to speak again.

But then Tony _whimpered._

Not like before, but a frightened, pained sound that was so achingly desperate it practically hurt, and where Loki might have mocked any other man for his weakness he only turned and bent again by Tony's side, whispering assurances to soothe over the earlier harshness that had reached him. No doubt he was confusing the others with his fickle moods, and yet he could only care enough that Pepper still hadn't left the damn room to do as she'd been told.

Perhaps he should repeat the order. Less harshly, of course, since Tony seemed capable of recognizing tones if not words in his shifting unconscious, and yet his attention was again drawn to his ailing lover when the man turned, slightly, and his eyelids flickered, briefly, enough for Loki to recognize oncoming consciousness. Which explained his response to their shouting, anyway. Within moments Tony's eyes had flickered open, half-lidded, and his bleary gaze searched the room for a moment before landing on Loki with a weary smile.

"Great party, huh?" He wondered, voice little more than a pained croak, and Loki turned to demand one of Fury's men bring him water when he saw some on the bedside and offered it. Tony took it gratefully, swallowed down the entire cup a little more quickly than was likely healthy, and moved to sit up but found his attempt blocked by Loki's warning hand on his shoulder. "Paranoid." He accused, but stayed as he was.

Fury and Coulson shared a quick glance before the latter turned and left the room, leaving barely any room through the door for even the guards on the other end to see what was happening inside. The Colonel himself crossed the room to stand opposite Loki, looking down without any obvious concern at Tony and seeming to conclude he was well enough to talk. "You're awake. Good. We need to decide what's going to be done about Schmidt, and as of now he thinks _you're_ halfway to the morgue. We want to keep it that way."

Tony, still blinking away sleep and in obvious pain his normal nonchalance couldn't mask, seemed to take a moment to understand. Before he could Pepper stepped in, and Loki reminded himself that no, not with Tony watching- he couldn't react to her now. "Absolutely not. You can't ask him to deal with that right now- he still needs rest."

Well. Loki could agree with that, so it was no trouble to keep his silence, only to move closer to Tony with a look for Fury that was more predatory than protective, but his point was made all the same. "Schmidt? What's he got to do with anything?" Tony paused, thought this over blearily then shook his head. "Right. Poisoned me. Cool. How'm I-?"

"Laufeyson found a substitute." Fury explained bluntly, apparently disregarding both Loki's and Pepper's warnings. "He's also stolen your weapon, like we expected. We did _not_, however, expect him to make an attempt at your life. Schmidt's no longer under our control and has to be dealt with immediately. We have no way of knowing what sort of fail-safe he has in place, so we can't just send in a sniper. And he's got _your_ death ray from hell, so we can't risk a frontal assault on the company."

"You told me to make it tough." Tony protested sleepily, the attempt at humor so faint Loki cut off any further conversation by wrapping his arms around him, pressing his forehead to feel the weakened pounding of his heart. "Hey, Babe, I'm okay, you know." Tony assured quietly, now brushing back _his_ hair and that wasn't right, was it?

"No, you're not." Loki responded, and of course Tony didn't have an answer for that. "Shut up and go back to sleep, Tony. We're getting you your chance to rest." He promised, not bothering to elaborate on his own reasons for wanting to give Tony the relief and isolation of a feigned death. "As for your plans, Fury, you and I can discuss that. _Later._"

"I'm not discussing anything with you, Laufeyson. In case you haven't realized I'm not an idiot, and I. Don't. Trust. You." The Director retorted, to which Loki responded with a harsh laugh. Oh, yes, of _course_ he shouldn't be involved in the actual planning, just the plans themselves when SHIELD was too pathetic to act on their own decisions. Did they expect him to comply with that?

"Whoa, hey, good morning to you too." Tony broke in before a fight could escalate, looking from Loki to Fury and then to Pepper with a pleading expression that was too weary to be wholly sarcastic. Loki felt something tight in his throat and turned away from his argument, kissed Tony on the forehead and murmured an apology which was met with a wry smile. "Wow, you're cuddly when you're worried. I like it."

Before he could disapprove of this mentality the doorway was filled with a minor commotion, and when Loki turned his gaze on it caught Colonel James Rhodes pushing his way past the guards while Coulson rose a hand to calm their protests. "Tony. Jesus _Christ_ man, can't you go two months without a near death experience?" He swore under his breath, which he seemed to be rather low on, and crossed the room but was halted from joining Loki by Pepper's warning look.

Fury raised an eyebrow at his appearance, but Coulson only shrugged. "He was already in the city." He explained, which seemed to be enough for the Director, who only nodded and turned toward Rhodes.

"Of course I was in the city! When I turn on the seven o clock news I don't expect to see that my _best friend_ has been hospitalized without anyone bothering to tell me." The soldier snapped in response, quitting the hushed argument he'd been having with the red haired girl. "I thought the whole point of SHIELD being here was to make sure he was safe. What the hell happened?"

"I had some bad wine." Tony said bluntly, lifting his arm with some effort and beckoning for them to come closer. "Why're you guys all the way over there? I'm ninety-nine percent sure being poisoned isn't contagious."

Loki didn't respond to that, and though Pepper seemed a little wary that he might turn on Rhodes and blast him apart with a spell she didn't hesitate more than a heartbeat before she and the soldier added to the minor crowd around Tony's bed. Loki remained the only one kneeling, but made no move to shift his position. "He's right, you know." Fury didn't even blink under his accusatory stare, which was to be expected. "Your security must be failing, Fury. How was he hurt under your watch?"

"I could say the same to you." He retorted, and Loki's returning growl was cut off by a warning word from Tony.

It was Coulson who continued, looking a little annoyed for the constant bickering on all ends. "Schmidt's man must have poisoned the party's entire supply. Since it was only designed to hurt Stark none of our tests showed there was anything wrong with the wine at all. Blood tests showed that the same poison in your system is in all the guests, but none of them have shown any negative side effects. Other than to the arc reactor it's completely harmless."

"You took blood samples of my guests? Somebody has _got_ to teach you guys how to throw a party. Personally, I find that people have more fun if all their vital fluids are snug and cozy inside their veins."

"Shut up, Tony." Loki suggested, and the man only shrugged and consented, only more of a sign that he was feeling the effects of the attack on his heart more strongly than he would admit. "Very well, we know what's happened and why. I want to know what SHIELD's going to do about it."

"It's obvious, isn't it?" Rhodes, and there was a hint of the warriors of Asgard in the fire in his eyes, the protective hand on his friend's shoulder. "I can have my unit ready in less than twelve hours. With enough men and the War Machine suit Schmidt could be in our custody in under an hour."

"No, he couldn't." Tony interrupts, smiling sheepishly and refusing to meet his eye when Rhodes turns on him with a confused frown. "He uh… has my weapon. The one for the expo. That was the whole point of all this," He stopped to wave toward the window, where the strip was a dim light in the background, "which is kind of why I didn't want you coming. Thought you'd disapprove."

"It's functional?" Rhodes asked after a moment's silence, and Tony nodded briefly. "Why would you give him something that worked?"

"I'm meant to shut it down. I can't do that remotely, and Schmidt needs to think he has something that works. He wants me in for work tomorrow. I'll go in, shut down the weapon, and trap Schmidt. SHIELD will be waiting for my signal to storm the building." Loki decided, and though Fury didn't seem too happy about his taking charge with things nobody protested his logic.

"Good. Now, you've got your plan- get out, and let Tony get some rest." Pepper, hands on her hips and glaring down two men who each carried more guns in their jackets than she had pins in her tied-up hair, was a surprisingly impressive sight. Oh, arrogant, yes, and amusing because she couldn't possibly hold up the implied threat, but Fury only shrugged.

"Suit yourself. Potts, this morning at three forty five you're going to declare Tony dead. I'll get a doctor to sign a legal certificate, and at four we're going to get him out of the building and to SHIELD headquarters. You two," Loki and Rhodes, both glaring when they were motioned toward, "will follow us there now."

"Not going to headquarters." Tony interjected, with as much force as he could manage, before Loki could ask Fury just how much of an idiot _was_ he, really, because there was no chance of him leaving Tony alone again. "I'm going back to Malibu, and Loki's coming with me. Rhodey too. J.A.R.V.I.S.'ll keep the press at bay."

Fury didn't narrow his eyes, or protest, or laugh mockingly and ask Tony what the hell he thought he was asking like Loki might have expected. No, in fact, he actually grinned- amusement more than mockery in his one eye, and nodded. "You're predictable, Tony." He said simply, leaving and waving for Coulson to join him.

"Just don't break the perimeter again. There's no new Super Nanny this week." He added before following out, and Tony only grinned and wouldn't tell anyone what that could possibly mean.

**A/N: Huzzah for Super Nanny.**

**Anyway, about time I got to preluding the actual conflict. Time for a rumble with Schmidt- and Loki is very, very ready and willing for that. Thanks again to all you guys for reading this, and for your comments. I love talking to people about the story, it's always great to hear your opinions.:)**


	19. Music Box

**A/N: Hello everybody, and a very happy March to you!:) I blame the Foofighters for this chapter and all its fluff and minor angst, but I guess it's okay because these guys really deserve some fluff after all I have (and will) put them through. Thanks for putting up with all the gaps in between new chapters, and for sticking with me this long. u.u**

**Disclaimer:Sadly, Marvel still isn't mine. Neither are the foofighters, but the cat is. Yup.**

Loki couldn't have been happier to see Tony safely home, freed from any further assassination attempts or press calls or foolish visitors by his supposed death- but the man himself seemed absolutely miserable, and for reasons beyond the physical. He passed it off with a weary smile when SHIELD brought them near enough to the manor for Loki to teleport the both of them inside, but the god knew better and couldn't keep off an annoyed frown. Perhaps he should have brought him here before Pepper made her announcement.

Many people cared for the "death" of Tony Stark, and far more mourned the loss of their iron-clad protector. These people had been waiting outside the hospital, either passing at the right time or staying with their pathetically worshipful children, eager for some sort of news. Loki'd been amused, more or less, to watch their reactions on the screen Tony had insisted be brought in so he could watch the media coverage of the announcement, but to his surprise had not shared Loki's mirth. When the camera caught footage of a young boy literally crying he'd shut the television off and turned over, feigning sleep and remaining that way until they could bring him from the hospital. Loki turned a raised eyebrow on Rhodes, who had only shook his head and said it was better not to ask.

Loki was annoyed, yes, but far more powerful was his concern, so when they returned to his Malibu home he demanded J.A.R.V.I.S. shut down all access to any sort of news footage and immediately directed Tony to his bed. He protested, of course, as he always did- but the protests of his heart were stronger, and weakness urged him to comply with hardly any verbal back and forth, though he did try to insist on changing clothes as an excuse to keep moving about.

Loki only raised his eyebrow, and a moment later Tony was sitting on the edge of the bed in a set of blue and dark grey pajamas the god knew were stored in his closet but rarely, if ever, actually touched. "There. Now sleep."

"Not going to kiss me goodnight?" Tony grinned wearily, but situated himself comfortably on his back anyway, pouting afterward. "There, happy? You know, it's like what, six in the morning? This is so not fair, I'm going to turn all nocturnal now. You're killing my sleep schedule, I actually had something going there after that trip. Now poof, it's all going to be gone when I wake up, just you watch."

"Then sleep until tomorrow morning." Loki bent down and almost mockingly conceded to give over that asked-for kiss, not at all comforted to feel Tony's lips cold even to his skin. "From what your computer has told me you need sleep and calm to recover. So you're not leaving this bed until I deem fit, and I'll readily tie you down if you argue with me."

"How come I actually believe you?"

"Because you know me, Tony." Loki smiled, something almost genuine, when Tony shrugged to concede the point.

Tony's eyes lit up, that same equivalent of a smile he always wore. "Tying me up sounds kinda kinky. Or weirdly possessive. Which can also be kinky, depending on who you ask and hey, I'm up for trying anything. You know, if you want me to get better I should go down to the lab, making something out of this that isn't all… amateur-y. No offense, I think I've got a right to be picky, though, considering it's my heart and all. What did you even do for half of this? Whatever, I'll fix it downstairs-" He started to sit up straighter, one hand supporting himself in an attempt to stand while the other rapped its knuckles against the reactor as if testing the new core underneath.

Loki stopped him easily, a hand against that same reactor and pushed him back against the pillow with hardly any pressure required. "No. I did as guided by J.A.R.V.I.S., who confirmed that the energy source I altered will keep your heart running for more than enough time for you to recover. You can work _after_ you rest."

"Unfair." Tony whined, to which Loki responded with another kiss meant to subdue his impatience, which seemed to do anything but. The man returned the gesture as eagerly as ever, hands snaking their way to Loki's hips and reaching for the edge of his shirt-

Loki drew away and held Tony's hands together by the wrist, raising a disapproving eyebrow at his sufficiently baffled boyfriend. "I said to _rest_. Anything that over-works your heart could be a risk factor, and I know from experience what can get your heart rate going. That can wait until you've recovered, too."

Tony crossed his arms and frowned, pulling off a perfected pout that Loki didn't need the practice he had under his belt to ignore. "That counts as rest. Sort of. Come on, I'll still be in bed, anyway. I don't nap." He leaned up again, clearly searching for another kiss, but Loki evaded him with ease. "Bully."

"I'm sure you'll manage. Think of how embarrassed you would be if we had to take you to the hospital halfway through sex because you had a heart attack." Made all the more uncomfortable by the fact that the man was, by all public rights, dead. Loki sighed and relented, just a bit, to sit beside Tony in bed and pull him in again- a chaste kiss, long but delicate and simple, little contact beyond a hand cupped around the back of Tony's neck and the one that still remained restraining his hands. He drew back and saw the frustration in his lover's eyes, only smiled. "I'll stay with you in bed, but no more than that."

"That's good too." Tony conceded, and let Loki push him back against the pillow before changing his own clothing (it really was handy having his magic available to him again, saved so much _time_) and sliding into bed beside him.

He really was in no mind to sleep, let alone to waste his time merely lying down when he could be fighting, or preparing, but Tony immediately leaned into him, resting his head on Loki's own chest with such a look of relief that the god wrapped his arms around and pulled him close without a second thought. The gesture had crossed the border of mere affection, slipped into a need to protect and comfort, and Tony smiled up at him, clearly rather amused by his concern.

"You need to lighten up, babe. I'm fine, I promise. Been through worse." Loki only raised an eyebrow and he shrugged, conceding that that probably wasn't the most reassuring thing he could have said. "I'm going to be okay, all right? You fixed me up."

"I let you get hurt." No guilt, no grief but for the fact that Schmidt still lived, that he still _needed_ Schmidt alive. Until tomorrow, when he could end the man and everything he was or pretended to be without losing the pull he held in SHIELD. Obliging it, really, because now the organization wanted that death almost as strongly as he did. "Now I'm going to make sure you rest, whether you like it or not. Understand?"

"Understand." Tony grinned, and immediately afterward a hand flew away from Loki's waist and to his chest. He tried to pass it off with a smirk and mocking swoon, but it came off more as a grimace and Loki drew back so that he had sufficient room to fix him with a suspicious look. The man only waved it off, immediately moving back into that former hold and practically curling up against his body, sure proof that this most recent rush of pain hadn't fully passed. "Okay, so _maybe_ you've got a point. I'll just… sleep for a little while. JARVIS, put some music on. What? Helps me sleep."

Loki sighed yet made no other protest but to tighten the hold on his injured lover, planting again a kiss to the crest of his head. "Fine, music. But you're _going_ to sleep." He warned, frowning in disapproval as a less-than-soothing tune filtered in through the ever present speakers, far too loud. "Lower that, immediately. By half at least."

"Of course, sir." J.A.R.V.I.S. complied even as Tony glared and demanded the order be cancelled. He was ignored, and the music had reached a far more appropriate level by the time Loki was content to nod for it to stop.

"You turned my computer against me. How the hell did you even do that?" Tony whined, and all the god did in response was smirk, raise an eyebrow and laugh when Tony pouted again, nudging him with his forehead –in what was apparently meant to be a disgruntled manner- and an annoyed huff of breath. Which quickly broke into a literal gasp of pain, shuddered against Loki's body and he cursed, the sound strained. "Agh- fuckin'...! Ow, ow, _ow_. Hurts, oh my _god_ that hurts. Loki, babe, it _hurts_." He shut his eyes and buried his forehead against Loki's chest, practically whining the words, hands clutching his upper arms and clenching tight, fingernails digging into the god's skin.

Loki hardly registered the fact, his attention entirely devoted to Tony and his heart's sudden violence. "I know, darling, I know. Calm down, just breathe." He murmured, still holding him tight, and continued to whisper the same assurances until moans of untouchable pain subsided into slightly whimpered breath, eventually normalcy. Even then he held tight, the only sound in the room for a few minutes the dull, pounding drum of the song running through the speakers.

Then Tony cleared his throat, every sound no longer tight with pain but echoing it, and slipping his hands down to wrap around Loki's waist, returning the hug. "Sorry. It's gonna be like that for awhile, getting used to a new heart and all. Metaphorically. Sort of. I'm not dying when it happens, just so ya know."

Loki didn't respond beyond another kiss to the top of Tony's head, stroking the man's back to comfort himself as much as to alleviate the pain. "You must be more careful. You're only mortal, you know. So weak." The last part barely audible, more a side note to remind himself of that weakness then anything. "Even Thor- a simple blow to the head's all it took."

He barely realized he'd said that last bit aloud until Tony looked at him, startled, and he quickly amended. "No, I didn't kill Thor. I only hurt him. But he almost died, far too easily. While he was like a mortal." Weak, so weak, so breakable.

"You really did try to kill him." Tony didn't sound surprised, and if there was any fear in his voice it came for what his morals were telling him to do about being curled up against a man who would kill his own brother. "Did you want him to die?"

Loki had to pause for a moment to be certain about that, to wonder at his own mind when he'd turned from the image of his brother's seemingly fallen body. "Yes. I did." He decided at last, tone completely neutral, without stilling his comforting hand or turning his head.

Tony was exhausted, but his body was warmed again with life, smelt and felt of Autumn and a very mortal sense of being that had been a comfort, before. Now only reminded him that the time he might have to feel that warmth was very limited, regardless of whether or not this recent attack had any effect on his prolonged health. Tony didn't seem aware of it, how _brief_ he was, and only turned a curious gaze on Loki, digesting his last response. "Yeah, I believe you. Would you try again, now?"

"I don't know." He didn't think before giving that response, lest he arrive with an answer one way or the other, and… no, he didn't want to do that. Did he or did he not still desire his brother's death? Here, holding Tony close and calming him with his touch, the answer was no. He didn't want any more than this- but he didn't doubt his mind may change the moment he was again alone.

Tony just nodded, like he might have understood or at least been trying to, and shifted into a more comfortable position, until Loki was lying back, propped up by the headrest, and he was resting on his chest like he usually only did when he was exhausted by sex. Well, the lethargy was the same, anyway, though he didn't doubt the pain was a lot less fun in this case. They sat there like that, the music lulling even Loki near to sleep, until Tony suddenly tensed. Thinking there was some more pain Loki sat up straighter, raising a worried hand to the man's forehead, but he only brushed him off. Some new song had started up, seemingly sweet, nothing to be a concern, but Tony attempted to demand it change.

"Don't." Loki insisted, meeting the man's gaze, and the music continued to play when Tony only smiled apologetically. What on earth could be…?

_One of These Days_

_The Ground Will Drop _

_Out From Beneath_

_Your Feet_

Slow, relaxing, seemingly romantic. That should have been a good thing, especially in the mind of someone as flirtatious as Tony, who typically leaped on any chance for seduction when they were together like this. Not reason for that frustrated frown, certainly.

"Now why are you so paranoid, hm?" Calm now that he was sure Tony felt well enough, Loki only smirked, pressed a kiss to match his teasing words to his jawline. No response, like he was still dreading an explosion of sorts.

_One Of These Days _

_Your Heart,Will Stop _

_And Play Its Final Beat_

Loki froze, now, and increased his grip 'round Tony, fixed his gaze onto the wall without really seeing it. Oh. Well, that explained that. The song had a point, didn't it? Reflected his own thoughts, his fear, as surely as if it had read them only moments before. It droned on, for awhile, that same tune so pleasant, so mocking, that he could only feel something grip his throat as he was forcibly reminded of a funeral. He'd been to a few, before, for mortals he'd known under a human guise- this certainly seemed appropriate to the music he'd heard then, and what he didn't want to hear again.

_One Of These Days_

_I Bet Your Heart'll Be Broken_

_I Bet Your Pride'll Be Stolen I'll Bet I'll Bet I'll Bet I'll Bet_

Loki was probably holding Tony far too tightly, as if to keep himself from standing and rushing from the room. Just to be away from this, from so much attachment to a mortal- there was only one way this could end, wasn't there? And it hurt to imagine, far too much, but he didn't want to leave. To give it up, simply to avoid pain in the future, which would have of course been the safest route, and the most logical. But Tony had that effect on him, ruined him for logic, now didn't he?

_One Of These Days Your Eyes_

_Will Close And Pain Will_

_Disappear_

"Turn it off." He snapped before the song could continue, still glaring forward without really seeing the door he was glaring at. A second later the music quite, and he realized in the silence that he was growling under his breath, teeth bared. Tony sat up and kissed him, almost apologetically, not bothering to speak, and Loki pulled him closer in response, ducking his head against Tony's shoulder and breathing deep, slow, to calm himself. No, no no no- please don't leave, please don't die, please…

"Still here, Babe," Tony murmured, enough for Loki to calm, more or less, and nod then return the kiss.

It didn't mean much, though- still here, yes, but for how long? Owing to Tony's heart Loki would assume ten years, if he was allowing himself to be optimistic- ten years in this man's company. Hardly a blink of an eye for him, a god. "I'll miss you." He whispered, surprised to find himself speaking the word but not attempting to withdraw the statement.

Before Tony could answer there was a soft thump, and a very disgruntled yowl drew their attention to Fenrir. The cat was glaring at them as surely as a cat might, tail lashing back and forth in furious disapproval for their continued determination to offer each other affection when he was, apparently, in the same room and therefore the much more obvious choice for said affection. Loki supposed he'd been hiding underneath the bed when they returned- and just now decided he wanted their attention. The god didn't move to grab him but beckoned for him with one hand, which Fenrir took as invitation enough and bounded over happily, leaping onto Tony's stomach as if he was just a pillow between him and his master. The man muttered a curse and attempted to shove the cat away but Loki scooped him up in one hand, set him down again beside the two of them rather than let him agitate Tony when all he needed was rest.

Fenrir didn't seem to mind. He mewled happily and nuzzled his head against Loki's shoulder, whining for his attention. The god patted the top of his head absently to quiet his complaints, kissing Tony once in apology, only a hint of the amusement he'd normally have found here at all prevalent. "Stop whining. Get Pepper to feed you." He scolded, earning a nip on the finger for his refusal.

Another loud yowl, and Loki sighed, scratched the top of Fenrir's head to abate his annoyance. "You annoying… Fine. But I'm not going to feed you, you know. You'll have to leave if you want anything." He muttered before turning back to Tony.

The man was grinning, which hardly seemed appropriate given the more recent fear and sadness of sorts that had plagued the room moments ago. Loki raised an eyebrow, a little put off. "What?"

"Nothin'. Just so cute when you play with that thing." Tony smiled sleepily, nuzzling his head against Loki's chest and making some poor attempt at a purr. "I can be cute too, like a cat, right?" If he'd meant to do anything else oddly feline it was failed by a yawn, and the god shifted his grip, wrapped him tight so that he couldn't move any further.

"I prefer you as a person. Now sleep, Fenrir can keep me company." Loki assured forcefully, swallowing back his panic, reminded himself that slow breathing just meant Tony was on the verge of sleep, not dying. "I still hate that name, might I add."

"I think it suits him. Thing's a little demon." He muttered grumpily, struggling against the hold but realizing it was a doomed failure and yawning again, resigned to sleep. "Not that your supposed son's a demon, or anything. Just a wolf. Wolf's aren't that nice. Never met one, just making a general assumption, of course most of my knowledge is based on the Little Red Riding Hood so-" another yawn, and he curled up closer to Loki's chest, shutting his eyes as his mouth ran on, "can't say for sure. Do you have any kids? Like, the people ones. You said you didn't sleep with a horse, so no octapedal equines in your family tree, but you had others, right? Fenrir, the snake- Jormun….thing."

"Jormungand." Loki supplied, an amused smile quirking at his lips. "Don't try to pronounce it."

"Right. Snake thing. Then Hela, or Hel or… whatever." Another yawn, words sort of slurring together in a way that wasn't entirely from exhaustion, and Loki's hand shifted to cover Tony's heart with an anxious frown. "Vali, Narfi. Any others the myths don't tell us about? Oh, probably. Mortals or something."

Loki tensed, something catching in the back of his throat, and it was a moment before he could respond. "_Sleep_, Tony."

Tony didn't seem to notice Loki's apprehension, only yawned once more and murmured something sleepy that the god couldn't quite catch before he finally drifted off, completely out within less than a minute. Loki shut his eyes, sighed with relief and something not so welcome, and ignored it when Fenrir cried for his attention. He should have risen, set the cat outside and forced him to go to Pepper and Rhodes (both of whom had made it very clear that they would not be leaving the house so long as Tony was on bed rest), but even _his_ mind could only stand strong for so long. Less than a day had passed since Schmidt's attempt, but the stress of those few hours was enough that Loki had no desire to listen to the weary complaints of his thoughts- concerns, predictions, memories all vying for his attention and he was going to give none of them quarter.

It was a little difficult, considering how they were situated, but he managed to turn both himself and Tony onto their sides, arms still pulling the other toward his chest. More comfortable, for himself at least, and as Tony gave no response but to shift slightly, bury his head against the crook of Loki's neck, it seemed he welcomed it as well. He was colder than he normally was, that normally spiked temperature gone- Tony was, when he was healthy, uncommonly warm, his overworked heart super-heating his body. To Loki, who only recently had learned why his body temperature was so abnormally low, that was a relief to feel, warmth that spoke of life.

Perhaps that was why, even now when there was little heat from it, Loki was so keen to curl up with Tony, wrap around him and draw comfort both physical and mental that he'd rarely had before. Uncommon heat that seemed to fight away uncommon cold and let Loki feel as if he weren't quite so abnormal as he'd recently realized himself to be. So he focused on that, closed his eyes and ignored even Fenrir (until the cat ceased his yowling and curled up in a more or less content ball), rather than thoughts of his children, of Tony's mortality, or of how very badly he wanted the morning to come so Schmidt could pay for what he'd done.

* * *

><p>VVV<p>

One thing about Tony that nobody knew- he dreamt.

Not like "oh look I'm giving a speech in my underwear" (which he'd actually done before, goddamn booze) dreams, but flashes of sand and fire and pain in his chest. The army psych guy who'd talked to him on the way back from Afghanistan (a total asshole, but they'd said he wouldn't go home unless he dealt with him) had warned him about PTSD. Tony'd laughed, and he still did- because he wouldn't call it anything like that, no way, not even nightmares, really. Just a few more or less bad dreams.

And he hadn't even had _those_ in months. Not since Pepper had kissed him on the roof of some building he'd never learned the name of- not since he'd been awarded a metal and grinned at Senator Byrd's hatred, not since he'd been called into SHIELD as a "consultant", and definitely not since he'd flown to Utah and found a bloody and battered god lying in a pile of impossible snow. Not even a few flashes of nervous memory, not while he shared a bed with that same god.

Loki kept him safe from his own mind- but Tony should have known he wouldn't be enough, not when his heart felt like somebody was tearing it out.

And, in his mind, they were. Voices shouting at him in a language that didn't make any fucking sense, drowning out Yinsen's attempts to translate with their own words and his screaming. He didn't like that, didn't like showing pain, but there were hands tugging at the wires of some god-damned _battery_ hooked to his chest, pulling them like they might tear away, rip his chest open. Okay, okay, I'll build it- what the fuck do you _want_ from me? Stop, just stop, and I'll do it.

No translation, not for their benefit anyway. Some German voice ringing in his ears, laughing and wondering why he should stop, they don't need anything from him, and be grateful they gave him the battery at all. He's never seen Red Skull without the mask, but Tony recognizes the face of nothing but cartilage leering down at him, holding his reactor in hand while Yinsen apologizes, explains that they needed it, but he doesn't speak German, does he? Apparently he does, because that's what he suddenly hears all around him, and he tries to shout them down and scrambles for the reactor but they _pull_, and the wires connected to his chest tear halfway out, blood streaming down his skin. He screams again, and red flashes over his vision, and he thinks oh, fuck, I'm going to die- it hurts, it hurts, what do they want? They've gotten everything already, taken his heart, his weapon, turned him into a dead man. Not enough, apparently, never enough from Tony Stark.

VVV

Loki was jolted out of sleep so suddenly he barely realized he was back in the waking world, shook his head and tried to register what had just shoved him away, why Fenrir was hissing, back arched and fur bristling. Why Tony was curled up in a tight ball, sobbing in pain and fear, choked screams breaking their way through and stabbing at Loki's ears. Eyes shut tight, shaking his head, begging and whimpering, scrambling to get away from something unseen.

Loki reached out, intending to hold him close and calm him, but froze with the memory of his own panic in SHIELD- Romanova's touch had seemed like nothing but another assault. Tony was likely to react as he had, striking out, but he was trembling by then and Loki had no fear of a mortal's blow. Without hesitation he took Tony by the shoulder- swallowed down anxiety when he flinched away, raised his hands to cover his head and begged for Loki not to hurt him- and pulled him close, sat up straight and clutched Tony to his chest. The man whimpered, struggled to get away, shoved at him but Loki whispered useless reassurances, stroked his back and refused to let go.

Eventually his eyes shot open, but all he did was look up at Loki then try again to scramble away, sobbing in panic as the god held him tight and murmured attempts to calm him. Tony's struggles slowed, eventually, and though his breath held a hysteric sort of panic and his body remained tense as a whip he held still but for fearful shaking. He didn't speak or move for another half hour or longer, and Loki didn't shift his hold throughout, not sure Tony wouldn't harm himself somehow if he did.

When Tony did quiet down he shut his eyes and gripped a handful of Loki's shirt, pressing his forehead to his chest. "Sorry." He whispered, barely audible. "Sorry."

"What's there to be sorry for?" Loki wondered calmly, not feeling the need to remind him of the nightmare he'd suffered not all that long ago. "Does this happen often?"

Tony started to speak but his voice broke, swallowed and cleared his throat before continuing. "Uh… yeah. Not recently, but yeah. Normally I'd just get up and get a drink then head down to the lab." He looked hopeful, almost, but Loki just kissed the top of his head and shook his head. No drinking. "What time is it?"

"Two thirty one in the afternoon, sir." JARVIS supplied helpfully, leaving the windows pitch black to fight off the sun. "Ms. Potts and Colonel Rhodes are waiting in the third floor dining room."

Tony looked relieved, though Loki couldn't suppress a touch of annoyance grounded in far less than logic. Neither of them spoke beyond that, Loki unwilling to demand he sleep though certain Tony needed the rest. Another dream would do him little good, his heart still working furiously, pounding to deal with the fear. The god's own body and mind were exhausted, sleep dragging his thoughts down even as he struggled to keep a firm grip on reality and Tony alike. The man seemed to notice this and only curled up closer to him, seemed almost relaxed for Loki's exhaustion, and the god would very much have loved to glare at him and demand an explanation, but Tony hadn't ceased to tremble and his curiosity wasn't quite enough to merit the risk.

VVV

It wasn't until Tony realized that Loki was half unconscious that he managed to really relax at all, firmly convincing himself that he was still in the first world and still had a more or less functional heart. It was weirdly reminiscent of that time he'd passed out while Rhodey and Pepper were both there, and actually _purred._ Or, well, snored, but it sounded pretty damn close. If Tony was still dreaming or if the Ten Rings had drugged his drink, psychological on top of physical torture, then he wouldn't have had the relief of that memory.

He didn't want to sleep, but he wanted Loki to, for some reason. There wasn't any way he would listen and just pass out if Tony told him to, though, so he curled up closer (he'd have to delete every moment of this from JARVIS' memory) and murmured against the god's chest, just clearly enough to come out resembling a coherent sentence. Whatever, there was one operative word, and the way Loki tensed told him it hadn't gone unnoticed.

"Can you maybe sing something?"

Tony was pretty sure nobody had dared to ask Loki anything like that before, especially not a mortal, but he was Tony freaking Stark and he _hurt_, and he'd heard Loki singing when he thought nobody could be listening. It was some weirdly beautiful, almost _mournful_ sound, and Tony wanted to hear that sound stringing words together for his benefit. Maybe it was his ego, maybe it was just the not-quite-gone panic compelling that desire. Either way it didn't abate, and though the throbbing in his chest told him that this was bad (oh my god, why had he said that, this was a _god_ and Loki was going to be mad, going to kill him or take the core back or-) he made no move to reverse the request.

"Very well." Oh shit, what? He was actually agreeing? Tony wanted to look up at him in surprise, but he was scared that if he drew his head away from where it was pressed against the warmth of Loki's chest he would just fall apart. "Not a word of this." Loki warned, briefly, and Tony was too weary to make the half-formed joke that Fenrir might tell, so he only nodded, tense with either fear or anticipation.

When Loki started singing it wasn't in any language Tony recognized (and he knew quite a few, he'd made a point to start learning after Afghanistan), but the melody was more than enough. It was quiet, as if the words themselves were scared of being overheard, but it filled the room and minded Tony's fear, the slow tune without a meaning seeming to wrap around him, adding more protection than the god's arms already offered.

Tony didn't like music, normally, unless it was screaming in his ears and drowning out everything that could be remotely considered emotional thought. Music where the lyrics were stupid and pointless (though the bands all seemed to think they were poets these days) because he thought it would protect him from his own mind. But Loki's song meant more than rough words turned into sound should have been able to mean, and Tony _didn't_ think, not like he did with the mind-numbing nothing that blared in his workshop. He wanted to know what the words meant but was pretty sure he already did, because images of golden towers and endless water and men on horseback came unbidden to his mind. It felt like Loki was telling him about his home, and Tony wanted to drink up every sound, even if his body understood it far better than his mind did.

The worst part was that he probably wouldn't have cared anywhere else. He was still feeling raw, shaken, from the knowledge that somebody had managed to find a direct path to his heart, and was unusually receptive because of it. Loki probably didn't even realize his song was having any effect, not when Tony'd never bothered to hear it before. And yet he was actually disappointed when the lyrics began to falter, when Loki's voice dropped into mumbling and then little more than whispered humming against his ear. That had been his point- to make the god sing himself a lullaby until the song drifted off, as it did then, into nothing but relaxed breathing. Still, he kind of wanted to hear more of it, and for a second he was tempted to wake Loki up and get him to continue.

But the god looked a lot more peaceful in sleep than Tony had been, mouth parted in a lazy gap, head drooping forward with his hair sliding down in front of his eyes. He hadn't relaxed his grip either, still holding Tony tight and staving off the worst of the dream. Fenrir gave an annoyed yowl at the silence and reached out to swat at his master's leg, to which Loki responded by mumbling something that like "mmbujgzziug" and dropping his head to rest on Tony's shoulder. It was probably one of the cutest things he'd ever seen.

He should probably get back to sleep. Being poisoned, having multiple attacks of pain because of that, and then waking up in a panic and freaking out his now-throbbing heart was probably not the healthiest way he could have been spending the night. But the moment he shut his eyes Fenrir's annoyed scratching of the sheets became a knife on rock and Tony shot wide awake again with a gasp he was glad nobody could hear, clutching Loki tighter and thankfully not waking him up.

Okay, no sleep. That was fine, whatever, since when did Tony sleep anyway? Sleep was annoying, and boring, especially when there were so many better things to do. Like building something, or rolling in bed with his boyfriend, or flying around in the suit and shooting evil doers- or just watching Loki sleep off a day's work of protecting him, which he'd sworn he would never need.

Tony Stark did not need or want protection, Iron Man _definitely_ didn't, but maybe it could be all right. You know, just once in awhile.

**A/N: Wheeee music.**

**Yes I know this chapter is derpy and makes no sense and I suck at writing PTSD attacks but I'm currently sleep deprived and wanted to get this to you guys as soon as possible so enjoy!**


	20. War on One Side

**A/N: Look, I'm not dead! I'm so sorry guys, no excuses. Thanks for putting up with my erratic schedule and stupidly infrequent chapters. All the same, enjoy chapter number 20~ (Omigosh twenty chapters aaaaaaah. This thing's getting so long. o_o)**

**There's a new character in this one, let's hope I did him justice.**

"You shouldn't be here."

"Well, technically neither should you but hey, what's a little breaking and entering to SHIELD, right?" Tony didn't even look up from his watch, something Pepper'd brought home and demanded he wear if he even wanted to _think_ about leaving the house. It was supposed to warn him if his heart went nuts, and he was convinced he could have made one more stylish and more effective if they'd have let him down to his lab, but it had been bed rest for Tony until about twenty minutes ago, by order of one very forceful god of mischief. Jerk.

Nameless pretty blond boy scoffed and rolled his eyes, distracting Tony's view by more or less popping up in his face, shoving away the watch. He was kind of like a new puppy who didn't know how to back off on the "pay attention" thing, which was weird because as far as Tony knew this guy was supposed to be some sniper for SHIELD. Who still used a bow and arrow, and not even a very good one. Every time he saw the guy walking around with the thing Tony wanted to grab the weapon and redesign it, all the way down to the color of its arrow tips. Considering the guy was acting as his personal sort-of guard for the moment, however, it probably wasn't a good idea to steal his equipment. Maybe later.

"Technically I haven't broken or entered yet, so I'm fine to be here." Pretty-boy-blond pointed out, leaning back to sit on the screen of some SHIELD computer build right into the dashboard of the van they were currently stationed in. "_You, _however, are probably going to have a heart attack if Schmidt says 'boo' too loudly."

"If Schmidt says 'boo' I'll probably just laugh myself to death." Tony knew all the agents involved in following up on Loki's attack had to know about his heart (they'd all thought he was dead until an hour ago, after all) but he still didn't like it. Especially not with muscle-man here making fun of him at every other opportunity. "Okay, my mental monologues are in serious danger of quality depletion. I need a name so I can properly list all my grievances with you."

"As good a reason as any." He grinned, as if this were the most normal sentence in the world, and extended a hand in greeting. "Clint Barton. Also your personal bodyguard until Laufeyson's done killing people. Actually, Coulson says I'm your bodyguard, but I'm really just supposed to bother you until the stressful stuff's over so you don't pass out or something, 'cause I think your boyfriend wouldn't appreciate that. Then he'd probably kill us all, and I've recently discovered that I enjoy the use of all my limbs."

"I'm sure they're very glad you appreciate them. What're you doing here anyway?" Here being a van which Tony supposed _might_ pass for high tech, if you had the standards of a fourth grader. Still, SHIELD's equipment was enough for the job at hand, which at the moment was just setting up com links with every agent plus Loki who was stepping within a thousand yards of the Lernaea building. "Shouldn't you be, you know, sniping?"

"Nothing to shoot yet." Clint explained wistfully, staring at his bow as if apologizing to it for the lack of things to kill. "Besides, Schmidt's got half the place underground, I'm supposed to catch anybody who tries to get away on foot."

"Am I included in that? Because contrary to popular belief I am vulnerable to sharp or pointy objects outside the suit."

"Probably. I think Loki might kill me if I shoot you though- so maybe I'll just tackle you or something."

"You know, you're oddly comfortable with the idea of inflicting bodily harm on me considering we met about ten minutes ago." Tony pointed out calmly, reaching out to fix a bit of faulty wiring because Jesus Christ how stupid _were_ SHIELD's technicians? "You should be more careful. I was kidnapped once, you know, you could trigger some sort of mental breakdown."

As if. Clint didn't take this any more seriously than Tony had meant it, only grinned and swung one leg to cross over the other. "I'm so okay with that. The lady who teaches sensitivity training is unbelievably hot."

"Seriously? I'll have to start offending people then. More than usual." Though Loki probably wouldn't like it if he started ogling at random woman in SHIELD's PR department. Damn committed relationships, why had he thought that was a good idea again?

A moment later the screen reminded him, a blurry image appearing and quickly sharpening out into a profile shot of Loki, who was currently smiling down at the camera fixed into his tie (worn just for that purpose, because Loki typically stuck to scarves if Tony'd let him). His smile was unfairly warm, all things considered, showed a flash of white teeth and lit his eyes up in a way that said he knew very well who was waiting on the other end of the camera. "We're all ready to go then?" Despite himself Tony smiled back, though the video feed only worked one way, and remembered oh, right, that's why.

Clint let out a falsetto sigh and swooned, batting his eyelashes and mouthing something about how they were just _too_ cute. Tony ignored him-he was beginning to like this guy already, the asshole- and bent down to respond, the damn microphone unfortunately built right into the dashboard. "Just about. Think Schmidt might get suspicious that you're talking to your tie?"

"Hm? Oh, he already knows about the camera." Loki assured calmly, apparently unbothered that his so-called cover had been blown before he even made it into the man's office. Tony saw him look up and to the side, probably towards some security camera Schmidt thought was well hidden, and wave cheerfully. "He thinks I'm looking for evidence to give the police, and he is _very_ annoyed that I'm not taking him seriously enough. He did expect it, though, so he'll allow me to keep it, and seeing as there's no audio in the hallway's surveillance he need not know how wrong he is. Ah, and one of his cohorts is having lasagna for dinner, and would like his friend to accompany him."

"How the hell-?" Clint stared at the screen as if he thought it might bite and backed up a few feet, raising his hands to cover the sides of his head as if trying to block mind-reading waves. "That's so fucking creepy."

"I've…what's the term for it? Ah, yes, I've "bugged" the room." Loki assured with an amused sort of smirk, apparently not at all surprised to catch a stranger's voice filtering through the earpiece. "My magic is rather more sensitive than your electronics, and often times I pick up more than I can be bothered to hear. Not to mention Schmidt is horribly predictable."

"I also have a sneaking suspicion he can read minds." Tony added in an undertone, which Clint didn't seem to know if he was supposed to believe or not. Actually, Tony wasn't all too sure himself- he'd always been too freaked out of the answer to ask.

"Lovely. Now then, Darling." A weird by product of being poisoned and nearly dying was that Loki had decided pet names were A-okay, and since 'darling' sounded really sexy in an almost-English accent Tony wasn't about to start complaining. Though he might start whining if Loki was going to make him keep up his 'chastity for the sake of not having a heart attack' thing, because he was already beginning to imagine how good that would sound moaned against a pillow. "Hurry along, won't you? SHIELD has delayed me long enough."

"Gimme a second, babe." Two of the five other vans (or freaky CIA-esque cars of various disguise, actually) hadn't bothered to give any sort of confirmation that they were hooked up and ready to monitor, and Tony, for once, didn't feel like taking chances.

Far from discourage him Loki's puppy-dog pout that followed this only cemented Tony's determination to make this whole mission as safe as possible, and he grinned and winked for a camera that wasn't there. Shame the view was one-way, though Clint's mock gagging in the background would probably have earned the archer a few firebolts to the gut. Which would have been a perfectly reasonable price to pay, in Tony's opinion. "Gimme a sec, babe." He drew away from the microphone after Loki had replied with a theatrically exasperated _"Very well"_ and flipped a switch, his audio now directing to the "driver" of the car (aka two or three armed agents in plain clothes in the interior part that actually _looked_ like an interior).

"You guys are seriously killing me here, what's the holdup? Did Coulson's team get stopped on the way up by a sabotage display of Supernanny reruns or something?" No, he was never letting that go, thank you very much, and never-mind that nobody else seemed to have any idea what he was talking about.

Except Clint, apparently, who snorted on laughter and quickly covered it up with a fake cough and even faker look of confusion when Tony raised an eyebrow at him. Whatever, apparently Coulson's TV viewing habits were more widely broadcasted than he'd thought. "One of the drones," Oh, wow, they were calling these cars _drones_ now? Okay, whatever, let them play supercop if they wanted to, "is getting a jammed signal. Schmidt's got something to block transmission around the northeast corner of the building."

Huh, not so stupid as they'd thought, though Tony couldn't imagine why some guy would only want to protect one corner of his building, especially when, according to the detailed map Loki had made up for them, all the big bad stuff was nowhere near said corner. "Hook me up to their signal then. Not to that part of the building, just to the other drone."

There was a brief and reluctant "aye aye, sir" before the line clicked off again, and a moment later the van filled with what sounded dangerously like a pack of wild banshees. Tony wasn't sure what to do at first, one hand flying to cover his pounding heart while the other blocked just one ear and he tried to reach for volume control with his elbow, which just succeeded in him slipping and smashing said elbow against the control panel. Fucking _ow._ Thankfully Clint grabbed hold of him before he could manage any more spectacularly clumsy moves- so totally not his fault, by the way, the pain in his chest was making it hard to stand up even _with_ a pretty blond man for support- and reached out to pull the sound down until it was barely humming in the background.

"Okay, wow, Jesus Christ that's just annoying." Tony complained once he was better oriented, wishing the damn place had actual chairs so he didn't have to lean over the control panel as he worked. First thing first, tracking down the source of that horrible wailing, which took him maybe thirty seconds. Then he got to work figuring out if the disturbance was intentional or just the byproduct of something else, and after concluding the latter spent about five minutes teaching the "drones" to bypass that signal and voila- instant banshee death. He turned the volume up again and flicked the switch, giving the microphone a thumbs-up though the agents couldn't see. "They're all clear."

"Then get Laufeyson in there." The man replied, and with another click Tony was free to bring up the image of a very bored-looking Loki. For a guy who was a few thousand years old he was ridiculously impatient, honestly.

"All right babe, you can head on in now. Just remember to angle the tie so I can watch you beat the crap out of him, okay?" Tony tried to keep his voice as clear as possible, but those green eyes narrowed suspiciously all the same.

"What happened? You're hurt." Loki was getting way too familiar with his voice if he could recognize the problems a minor jolt encouraged, but Tony tried to wave it off anyway while behind him Clint muttered something about mind-reading and lasagna.

"Just got a bit startled, no big deal. Unless me being hurt will make you hit Schmidt even harder, in which case I'm in unbearable agony and you should go avenge me immediately."

"I don't think it's possible to do more damage to him than I already intend, but I'll do my best." Loki replied in a chipper tone, though he was still looking a bit suspicious.

Probably time to change the subject. "Then let's not waste time. You've got the all-clear now, babe, go ahead and kick that guy's ass. But don't forget to disable the weapon, we don't want his soldier boys playing around and blowing up half of Malibu."

"That can wait until Schmidt is dead." Tony had rarely heard Loki so excited about something, or so happy- and to be honest it was unnerving hearing that flare up only when he thought he might get the chance to kill somebody. Someone who definitely needed to die, who'd probably take half the world to hell if they gave him the chance, and it definitely didn't help his reputation that he'd done work for Hitler, either.

But still. That didn't mean Loki had to be this happy about it, and Tony wasn't sure whether that puppy dog smile made him want to give the god a hug or go throw up somewhere. "A valid point. Now go on, quite the stalling. I know my voice is gorgeous but trust me, I have no filter from mind to mouth, you're never going to stop hearing me ramble on like this. Maybe I should get you a recording, in case you're off slaughtering cows or something and start to feel lonely. I can sing- I know, I'll just make a recording of stairway to heaven on loop, that'll really motivate you to violently kill stuff."

"Oh, hey now, that's just cruel." Clint lectured, giving a mock-shudder at the possibility while Loki only tilted his head and frowned in adorable confusion. "You know what, Loki, I don't think he really loves you. Go find a different boyfriend."

"You're offering?" Loki grinned as if he could see Clint's shudder, but nodded and turned away from the camera all the same. "Very well. Let's get this over and done, you've probably already traumatized the occupants of every other car. Can they hear you as well?"

Considering Tony was linked to Loki's com, and hadn't gotten any input from the agents scattered around here…no. Wow, how weird would it be only to be getting Loki's half of this conversation? Half those guys had probably clicked off the sound just because it weirded them out too much. Apparently Tony's silence was response enough, and Loki laughed brightly at the confirmation that he had successfully confused a good number of SHIELD's best agents before straightening his tie (the camera feed fizzed out briefly in annoyance) and walking through a newly visible set of ominously large double doors.

VVV

Schmidt, no doubt informed by those not-so-clever cameras of his, didn't so much as turn around when Loki entered his room without warning, despite the fact that his door was now sporting an unmistakable crack straight through the center. Perhaps he had been a little _too _rough forcing it open when the lock proved to still be engaged, but considering his purpose here Loki doubted violence was anything but expected. The other man's back was turned to him, hands busying themselves at a miniature bar that likely almost never saw much purpose. His soldiers had been sent away, and as Loki had long since disengaged the magical "bug" that let him spy on Schmidt he did not know nor care why this was.

"You know, Schmidt, typically when someone murders my boyfriends I don't expect them to ask me in to work the next day." He said at last, having to remind himself as he did so that he had been talking to Tony only minutes ago- unless he was there, or some semblance of his voice at least, it was far too easy to believe his own lie.

They'd had him walk here, rather than drive, because this hidden building of Schmidt's-which he wasn't even supposed to know the whereabouts of, thanks to that useless blindfold they'd given him before- was surrounded by equally hidden surveillance. Of course, as it was disguised on the outside as a factory that made spare parts for electronics there was little suspicion in the disguised cars that had parked nearby. Schmidt may have been wary, but he'd confirmed and acted on nothing, Loki was sure of that. Which would not have been the case if somebody had dropped him off- Schmidt would never have allowed him inside, believing he had some accomplice and had dared to reveal the meaning of this place.

For secrecy's sake he had walked, but Loki had been almost willing to give that up when he realized how _busy_ that part of town was. He'd been stopped constantly by just about everybody who seemed to own a television set, familiar with him either from the newspaper and gossip headlines or the broadcast from the day before detailing Tony's "death" (which had, unfortunately, included footage of the two of them at the expo). All of them had seemed to believe that they had to offer a personal apology for an event they had no hand in, and though he was happy to brush them aside it had been far more difficult to ignore the young girl with running eyes and a proffered flower. A lily, though he doubted she knew the significance of it, that was still resting in his pocket.

Schmidt ran life like it was a game, and Loki would not cow down and play with him, not today- and, unfortunately, not ever. He didn't plan on giving the man any more chances. "I am sure you can spare his loss, Lauson. We have far more important matters to see to today, and you are still crucial to that effort."

He hadn't even turned around, or commented on the camera he was fully aware of, and Loki watched with hatred that _burnt_ as the man only finished selecting a second glass and reached instead for some bottle of champagne to fill them with. Only then did he turn, the only touch of any emotion a sort of amused half-hidden smirk, and raised the drink in a mocking toast. "To your friend's memory." He declared calmly, meeting Loki's blank expression and nodding slightly before easily uncapping the bottle and turning to pour its contents.

Something snapped, and far too early Loki felt the air shift with his magic- never, not since he was a _child_ had he cast a spell without meaning too, had he lost control of his own power- and the glass in Schmidt's hand shimmered and vanished, until it became the same substance as was waterfalling into the glasses, champagne now crashing against the floor and the counter, coating the man's hand in amber liquid. Not violent at all, at least he hadn't turned the glass molten or anything so dangerous- Loki wanted each moment of pain he put Schmidt through to be deliberate, coordinated.

Schmidt didn't even jump, though he did hesitate and raise an eyebrow slightly at the alcoholic puddle of what had once been glass. When he looked up at Loki there was a new spark of interest there, and a touch more surprise than the god would have expected. There were clues, he hadn't been _nearly_ as careful as he might have- Schmidt should have known by now without a doubt. "You have not been entirely truthful with me, Lauson. A sorcerer could have removed any ties between myself and Stark's murder immediately."

The arrogant- Schmidt leaned back and lifted the one glass that had successfully filled with liquid, taking a calm sip and eyeing Loki without a touch of fear. Sorcerer, he had said. He thought he was dealing with a few fancy tricks and mortal spells, he had no idea a god was in his midst. Yet of course not, SHIELD had told him quite a bit about the man's obsession with Loki's kind- he'd not have dared continue mocking him if he knew the truth. Seemed even to fear him _less_, as he had given up his American tones, now speaking like a full-blooded German. "You've removed them all without my magic." He replied bluntly, resisting the urge to shatter the glass he held. Not yet.

SHIELD wanted to hear his plans, and though Loki had little interest in such precautions he felt he had best comply, with Tony stationed beside one of their agents. Perhaps they would not stoop so low as to hold a man hostage-they would have certified their own deaths to do so- but Loki would not be fool enough to be surprised if they did.

Schmidt nodded, calmly, and took another swallow of champagne. "I wonder why you did not come to me directly. We need not have wasted so much time."

The words blurt out before he could stop them, words that were far truer than he intended, and Loki's fingers wrapped 'round the lily's stem. "I wanted more time. With him." No, his voice would not break here, even if his anger had left any room for tears or panic. He hastened to add a lie, bitter and dangerous enough to make a lion retreat but not enough for Schmidt, to his confession of sorts. "Once he found out I'd given you those secrets I could never be with him again. I did not think you would actually _kill_ him."

And he hadn't. Fooled, perhaps, by the ease with which SHIELD's plans merged with his own, the complete control he had held over the situation. Schmidt was far too similar to himself to let a risk like Tony remain for long, yet Loki had failed to see it until he'd been holding his dying lover in a mess of shattered glass and poisoned wine.

Loki glanced down quickly, unable to see Tony's reflection through the one-way camera but calmed moments later, anyway, by the man's voice. _"I'm here, Babe."_

Hmph. That annoying nickname again- it was all Loki could do not to smile in relief. "You can't expect me to remain in your 'employment' any longer, Schmidt."

"Can't I? With that device of yours-so cunning, I might add, I should have known the famous Tony Stark would create just what I needed- there is but one more step in my plan." He raised the glass again, though Loki had and wanted none to respond with, and smirked over the rim of it. Emotion, even such as that, was not becoming of him. "Then I shall again have power, Mr. Lauson, and not long after that, the world."

"Well, dream big and all that." Loki deadpanned, clenching the lily so hard the stem was little more than pulp between his fingers. He waited, for a moment, but Schmidt did not continue- wait, he couldn't possibly? He _did!_ Despite himself Loki laughed, a genuine amusement mixed with bloodthirst that he only regretted Tony had to hear. "You think I wish to rule with you? I'll not be your servant, Schmidt." _And you'd do well to remember that._

"A man with abilities such as yours," A brief glance, now, for the remnants of the champagne bottle, "could hardly be content catering to mortal whims. I offer you a chance at power, Lauson, and I know you will not forsake it. I am certain we can find you a new man to suit your tastes."

Schmidt's bored tone, his lazy stance, his confident smirk- before Loki knew what he was doing the counter Schmidt's hand rested on glimmered with frost, and as the man moved to draw back ice wrapped around his wrist and pulled him down, twisted his arm before solidifying in full and holding him to the surface. Still no fear, but the surprise was stronger than before, and something like amusement that had Loki cross the room and punch Schmidt 'round the face with as much force as he could muster.

That was… oddly satisfying, even if Schmidt only rubbed his jaw with his non-trapped hand and narrowed his eyes slightly, it wasn't hard to see why Thor was so fond of brute strength. Especially because now confusion, or suspicion perhaps, had replaced amusement- sorcerers did not possess the physical strength one such as Loki held. Ice laced its way to withhold Schmidt's other arm and the man didn't even flinch, though that was perfectly all right. He seemed tolerant to pain, stronger than the average mortal- which meant Loki had time to make this last. "What are you planning?" He asked almost as an afterthought, expecting no answer and hardly caring if he was given one.

Which he wasn't. Or, at least, no answer to his verbal actions. "You are too hasty." Schmidt scolded, jerking his arm roughly as if he thought his strength would break it free from the ice in one move- indeed stared down with mild surprise when it did not. Loki's magic would not be so weak. "Or perhaps too weak. To become so besotted with one mortal man that you would let the world slip from your grasp." He clicked his tongue in disappointment, and Loki debated for a moment whether it would be too oafish to hit him again.

He shrugged to himself, and figured that yes, it likely would be, but bashed Schmidt once more anyway. "And you are far too arrogant. I suspect you're planning to make me pay for this, aren't you? You're devising some clever plan which will end with me begging for my life, is that it?" Schmidt didn't respond beyond another slight uplift of his eyebrow, but it was answer enough for Loki.

Arrogant. Cocky. Weak. "Very well then." Loki drew back, preferring not to be so close to that loathsome man if he wasn't in the immediate process of striking him, and let the ice melt away to join the puddle of champagne-bottle-turned-champagne on the floor. Schmidt straightened up, perfectly calm, and brushed away the water heavy on his sleeves. There was anger there, now, and Loki knew he was already planning to make the god suffer for that temporary inconvenience (which he no doubt thought himself perfectly capable of escaping). "If you are so confident then hit me, see if you can win."

And confident he certainly was, but Schmidt, as expected, did not take Loki up on his offer. "Crude, but powerful. Refine your manners, Mr. Lauson, and perhaps we might make progress in my plan before long." He actually stopped now to check his watch, no doubt an entirely unnecessary gesture, and Loki found himself grinning. Oh, this was going to be _fun._

_"We need him alive, Laufeyson! Find out if he has a failsafe plan at least."_ Not Tony, not the man in the van with him either. Some unknown SHIELD agent, one who dared to use that damned name, and Loki found himself even madder than he had been moments ago, which was more or less completely against the agent's wishes.

The first thing would have to be removing that pitiful mask- if he was going to torture Schmidt he wanted to see his real face, real pain. And he would force him to show pain, no matter how well collected he believed himself to be. There were many methods that had forced men far better and far less mortal than this pathetic excuse for a being into revealing their own utmost secrets, and Loki'd taken enough interest in _those_ spell-books to entertain himself for days. If Tony weren't waiting outside he would have lengthened Schmidt's death that long, certainly, but an hour at the most would be all he could practically allow himself. Yet it was an hour he planned to make count.

The All-Tongue was a wonderful thing, really, and when Loki next spoke it was in Schmidt's native tongue, though to his ears it sounded no different. "Before we are done here you're going to apologize for Tony's murder, Schmidt, and I will see you sob for my mercy if it takes me two lifetimes."

Schmidt didn't seem at all concerned, if surprised to find that his employee spoke German, but his retaliatory threat never came. The voices had cut off yelling at Loki through the earpiece entirely now, the transmission either gone or stopped, but they both heard the crunch of a boot on stone just outside the door. SHIELD, but what were they _doing?_ Loki and Schmidt both looked to the door, quickly, and the former realized that even if he thought Loki himself was no threat, would be fool enough to _stay_ for awhile, Schmidt would not be so ignorant where SHIELD was involved.

He turned a moment too late- the bolt of magic he shot at Schmidt was avoided, and the man side-stepped his way behind the cloud of rubble that appeared as the counter burst to nothing. Loki cursed under his breath and tried to blow the dust away with a quick gust of wind (really how much plaster was _in_ that counter?) as SHIELD hit the door down, no doubt encouraged by the sounds of their fighting within. "Running away, are you?" He growled, ignoring the agents to search for Schmidt.

Smoke, not just plaster- he'd set off some sort of bomb, had he? Loki cleared the room, but at that point it was already empty but for himself and the soldiers. Mostly empty, he could still sense that Schmidt was there, or at least close- but with all these agents, all their equipment, he couldn't figure out _where._ "Discipline, Lauson. See some practice in that field and my offer will still stand."

His voice was cold, clipped, and just off to the right of the wall that he realized now was far above a blocked-off room at the deepest level of the building. He'd never had a chance to look, too busy working in the lab while he was down there and too bored to care, but there was a slight crack through the wall, like a nearly closed door… Loki shot out a burst of power that shattered the wood and metal and revealed nothing- at least nothing of use. An empty space, no doubt moments ago containing whatever Schmidt had escaped in, but whatever that was would have to have gone down, or up, and he started to rush at the gap, determined to catch him.

A SHIELD agent grabbed him by the arm and made some demand he didn't quite catch, but he understood the meaning well enough- they were keeping him away, _why_ were they keeping him away? Loki snarled and sent out a shock through his arm, heard the agent curse and felt him jump away as it burnt his hand, and put up a barrier to prevent any more interruptions as he rushed forward again. Nothing, up or down, the elevator or jet or whatever he'd used must have been fast, very fast, and now it was gone. He'd have to go after it, but whether he was to fly or ump down was impossible to tell until he could track Schmidt-

_"Loki, Baby, calm down!"_ Loki stopped, hand gripping the hidden door so hard the metal creaked and bent in protest, at Tony's voice. _"You all right?"_

The agents were watching him warily, one or two on walkie talkies while the others are either rushing out the room and down stairs with pounding footsteps or training their guns on him. Loki glared, but he quickly reminded himself that Tony was watching, and turning a few men's bullets on themselves would very likely be a damper in their relationship. "No, I'm not. Who authorized that? I _had_ him, Tony."

_"There's a bomb."_ That lazy voice, the man he hadn't seen yet, not Tony. Loki growled in annoyance, hoping that made it clear who he preferred, but the stranger continued all the same. _"Schmidt's got that place rigged to blow- he set a timer right before you got in there. And we're pretty sure he's gotten all the goodies out, too. He knew more'n we thought he did."_

"That's not my concern. I'm assuming the building was empty before these fools ran in." Loki snarled when one came too close and the man drew back, like he was dealing with a wild cat who might bite. "I can't just let him _leave._"

_"Shoo, Clint, your charisma's awful. Let me handle the testy god, 'kay?"_ A little bit of muttering, some over-played whining, and Tony's voice was again the loudest through the transmitter. _"Long story short, the bomb's huge. It'll take out half that block if it goes off, and Schmidt built it with something weird. They need magic to shut it down."_

Ah, that was it. Loki doubted the men even knew where this bomb _was_, hence those who had run off to search, but clearly they'd found out enough either through interrogation or sensors to realize that they couldn't solve this problem themselves. He thought of the crowd outside the building, the girl who'd given him the flower, and cursed again. A few men, certainly, would be acceptable- mass homicide not so, but… "He hurt you." Loki insisted quietly, both annoyed that Tony didn't _get it_ and hopeful that he would.

_"True, and I'll make you a list of other people who've hurt me too so you can go beat them up later,"_ It was hard to tell whether Tony was joking or not, but Loki hoped the man at least knew that he would be taking the offer (joking or otherwise) _very_ seriously, _"but that bomb's more important. Please, babe?"_

Loki didn't answer, though he was already well past the window of time he'd had to find Schmidt- the man was far off by now, too far for him to find without a planned search. _"If it help, this car's only like ten feet from that building, and I told the driver not to go anywhere until you're out here. I don't really want to end up like fried chicken, so- the bomb?"_

"Cheater." Loki snapped, glaring down at the camera in his tie and imaging Tony's triumphant grin on the other end. "Very well. I'll do it." Before there was a response he pulled the speaker from his ear and crushed it between two fingers, unwilling to hear even Tony's voice at the moment.

He'd lost. Schmidt was gone, for an unknowable amount of time, and Loki could only glare at the rubble of his office and curse the man with all his heart. Next time SHIELD must not be involved, no matter the casualties they might hope to prevent. For Tony's sake he could only be expected to wait so long, after all.

**A/N: Sorry Loki, I just never let you get your way, do I? I promise I still love you! I'm just mean. Yup. I hope this wasn't awful, it's half unbeta'd- ran out of time before a party. Thanks to everyone who's read so far, and for all the comments. You guys make my life with those things.**

**(I hope this chapter didn't suck, I felt kind of...iffy about it. Let me know if there were any bad parts?)  
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	21. By Any Other Name

**A/N: So this took forever and I'm sorry I suck frksdjfkdjrfgl. It's 22 pages though, does that make it better…? Thanks for sticking with me despite my horrible schedule guys. 100+ reviews, just. I am not worthy.**

**So this chapter contains pop culture references, transfigured dates, angry Loki, and ends with (sort-of heterosexual) sex. The sex was a last minute attempt to appease you for how long this has taken. I am shameless but I hope it worked. And it's kind of unrealistic but whatever, Loki's a god and does what (s)he wants.  
><strong>

**Also I apologize for the angsty headcanons I don't even know how that scene got in here but I liked it. So. Yeah.**

VVV

Clint let out a low, seemingly impressed whistle as the camera cut out- the transmission, after all, had been hooked up to the earpiece, even the video feed, and when Loki crushed it both were long gone- and turned a raised eyebrow toward Tony. "You're boyfriend's like a fucking riot act, you know that?"

"Don't you have prisoners to be beating?" Tony snapped in response, directing a very pointed look at the two men tied together in the corner of the van. _Why_ Clint had brought them inside to bleed all over the floor was beyond him, but their frightened looks almost made it worth seeing Schmidt get away. He wasn't anywhere near so mad as Loki was -more concerned because the guy was a nutjob who was probably going to destroy half the city if they didn't get on the ball _quick_- but he thought two of Schmidt's minions with arrows through their knees (Clint had said something about them not being adventurers anymore, whatever that meant) all tied up and loopy with pain might ease the sting a bit. So long as Loki didn't just light them up like Christmas trees, of course. He tended to do that.

Of course they'd only really known something was wrong when they spotted those two- Loki's feed showed Schmidt was as obnoxiously calm as ever, still confident he had the god on his side. He'd had no idea SHIELD was involved (suspected _something_, the cops probably), and anyway they hadn't left looking for trouble, just gotten the hell out. Three guys, one Tony guessed must have been lasagna man but it was hard to assume which, one who was now being carted off by SHIELD in a body bag. (Tony didn't think he liked arrows too much- they seemed a lot messier than a bullet, and anyway took longer between shots, but Clint's aim had been dead on.) The other two'd been luckier targets, seeing as neither of them had guns on hand, and one had even been smart enough to let slip that they were evacuating.

So a quick search and an empty bottom floor later meant something was really wrong inside- hence Coulson running in with a squad of guys on bomb patrol while the others went up to get Loki's attention where they thought it needed to be.

Clint shrugged and lazily threw a wadded up ball of paper at one of his makeshift captives, who started swearing loudly in German in response to the attention. "You know I'm supposed to keep those two conscious. Coulson ruins all my fun." He stuck his tongue out at the swearing man and made some pouty noise that was apparently childish enough to baffle the goon into a few second's silence, which was enough for Clint to grow bored and turn back to Tony. For somebody working who could concentrate every stem of his mind on one single shot the guy was even more hyperactive than Tony was- then again, near heart failure. Couldn't exactly be blamed for the lack of energy.

"Think he's found that bomb yet?" Clint wondered, giving a useless kick to the machine that was still struggling in vain to catch signals that weren't being transmitted any longer. "I'm not looking forward to the lecture we're all going to get for letting Schmidt get away. You're so lucky you're dead, he can't drag you in to angry shouting-match briefings in case anybody sees you. Maybe I should have a heart attack."

"Think your death would get news coverage?" Tony wondered idly, grinning at the annoyed look Clint retorted with before flicking the dashboard's transmission back to the guys at the front of the car. "What's going on out there? Any luck?"

"Other than cleaning up all the blood from those guys Barton shot without anybody actually seeing it, no. Not really." Clint whistled innocently and twirled in hand a still-bloody arrow he'd retrieved from the pseudo-nazi's leg. "There's no word from Laufeyson, but since you got him to destroy his receiver that's not exactly a surprise. The rest of the team hasn't reported in yet either."

Meaning either Loki hadn't found the bomb yet or… well, or Loki hadn't found the bomb yet. Tony couldn't think of many other reasons why SHIELD- painfully on top of things, it was really pretty stifling most of the time, guys needed to loosen up once in awhile- wouldn't call in the second they found something. Personally Tony was just surprised they hadn't evacuated everything within fifty miles of the place. But, then again, full scale panic and suspicion were probably something best avoided until absolutely sure there was no choice otherwise.

"Aww, worried about your boyfriend? Clint crooned, grinning like a cat who'd just walked in on an open cage of mice. "Honestly, I'm more worried about mine. If his temper kills everyone in there I swear to god I will get my revenge."

Tony raised an eyebrow but didn't comment- he knew a grand total of what, four, maybe five people in SHIELD, and couldn't really care less who pretty-boy blond was dating. "I make no promises. He's pissed off- this is the second time Schmidt's gotten off since the expo." Though he had, thankfully, gotten beaten in the face a few times, so that was a bit of a silver lining. Shame he was wearing that mask, Tony would have really loved to see whatever bruises swelled up between now and their next meeting. "I want to know how he got that weapon out of there without us noticing."

Another thing Tony had kept in mind when building his semi-functional, sabotage-ready doomsday device was making it so fucking huge Schmidt would never be able to sneak around with it outside of SHIELD's notice. He'd taken it off in some car big enough to fit two hummers inside it at Vegas. Probably dismantled it into multiple pieces -that might even be why he'd called Loki in today, _somebody_ had to put it together safely- while everyone else was stuck on the lockdown Pepper had insisted on after his collapse. They hadn't seen any cars leave the building though, but then again they hadn't seen any jets or motorbikes or anything to suggest how Schmidt had gotten out either.

Probably had something underground. And if Tony had to make a guess he was pretty sure he knew just where the entrance would be- it would take some interesting tech to set up an escape route as quick as Schmidt's, and whatever he'd used was probably more than capable of disrupting SHIELD's signals. That or there'd been some really badly designed television stuck in that jammed corner, but Tony was willing to go with the first bet.

"Well, no big deal. He can't use it, right? The whole point was you guys banking on him calling Loki in to show his way around the thing." Clint assumed, shrugging off Tony's concerns and wiping some of the thick red off his arrow, glaring at the stained tip as if he could will the blood away.

"Yeah, because he totally didn't demand Loki give him designs or anything." Tony rolled his eyes, astounded that this guy thought any self-respecting scientist would just accept a plan like they'd offered Schmidt at face value. Of course Loki'd shown him blueprints, schematics, even a few miniature models. All of them had been flawed one way or another at SHIELD's demand, but Tony figured that was just wishful thinking on their part. A big part of his disagreement with the plan had taken root in how badly they underestimated Schmidt- and just look where that had gotten them.

Well. Gotten _him._

Before Clint could respond the receiver cracked to life again, but instead of scolding them because they'd forgotten (again) to click it off, the driver actually sounded wary when he spoke. "No call yet, but Laufeyson's coming out. Coulson's team is right behind him. The god's looking pretty pissed."

The streets were clear, more or less, but at the driver's words Tony pulled up his hoodie anyway (wow, a hoodie,a master of disguise you are not, Tony) and debated whether to just call Loki in to the car. But Tony couldn't have cared less who saw him at the moment (everything else was failing so hey, why not throw that in there too?) and only gave Clint a mock salute before ducking past him and jumping out of the van before the archer could grab him. Tony was, after all, a lot quicker than he looked- and Clint's surprise that the guy in the suit was capable outside of it too probably played to his advantage. He was pretty sure he heard footsteps following him, but once he was on the street that didn't matter- Loki had turned and spotted him, looking so protective a tank could probably have come by and tried to force him back into the van and only been made into scrap for its troubles.

That was kind of weird, and Tony almost hesitated in his step as he tried to understand what exactly that meant. Nobody had ever looked at him the way Loki did- Tony Stark could take care of himself, thank you very much, and the only people who every really worried about him were Pepper, Happy, and Rhodey. Even they had never tried to _protect _him before, or treated him like he was something that wasn't quite fragile but definitely had the capability of being broken.

Coulson followed Loki's gaze and narrowed his eyes, but the only move he made was to mutter something ominous into his radio. Obviously they couldn't be making a commotion trying to force him anywhere if the whole goal was to keep attention _off_ him, right? Hopefully. It'd suck if Clint held good on his threat to impale Tony for trying to 'run away'.

But a few moments later Loki was there, and he doubted anybody in SHIELD would be dumb enough to try and interrupt when the god was looking so livid. Good thing he'd left the van- Loki'd never had such a dangerous look in his eye, not that Tony could remember. "I heard they caught two of them. Where are they?" Loki demanded immediately, hand twitching like he was resisting the urge to either a) throttle somebody or b) reach out and pull Tony into one of those vice-like hugs.

Which might actually not have been such a bad thing. He hadn't run at any point but Tony had moved quickly enough that his heart was beginning to pound again, needle-like pain finding its way to his chest. He ignored it and shrugged, wondering if he could get away with kissing Loki as roughly as he so badly wanted to. Probably not- the media would throw a party if they found out Tony Stark's boyfriend was "cheating" on him less than two days after his acknowledged death. "No can do, babe. SHIELD wants to get a look at them before you kill them."

He'd meant it as a joke, but he should have known Loki would be wanting just the thing he suggested. He was a lot angrier than Tony'd expected-showing him to the hostages was suddenly becoming a very bad idea. As it was Loki's eyes flashed with fury for a brief moment like he wouldn't accept this compromise, and Tony quickly resulted to plan B. He winced, barely noticeable, from the pain he was hiding in his chest and Loki's immediate plan of attack seemed to fade from mind. Drastic times called for drastic measures- he'd use dirty play if he had to, even if it meant he'd be dealing with Loki's protective streak a little longer. Again, not necessarily a bad thing.

The god's arm found Tony's, not gripping _quite_ hard enough to hurt but so firm he'd never have stood a chance of breaking free. Good. Tony didn't like being given a choice when it boiled down to things like this- he was always worried he'd run and hide, push Loki away because nope, he just didn't _do_ committed relationships. "You're cheating." Loki accused, because of _course_ he wasn't fooled- he knew just why Tony was allowing himself to show even as much pain as he was, but that didn't mean the plan hadn't gone golden.

"But not lying." Tony grinned, allowing the gesture to become an unexaggerated grimace.

Loki conceded a dry smirk for that and nodded, sufficiently distracted from his thoughts of vengeance long enough that SHIELD was on its way over to finish up damage control. Clint had been dragged into a sheepish apology to Coulson (which as far as Tony could tell consisted something along the lines of, _"I kind of figured Loki would probably kill us all if I shot his boyfriend, plus he moves a lot faster than a dead guy should- unless he's in Left 4 Dead, in which case he needs to speed the hell up because those motherfuckers are fast"_) and now the two agents were coming towards them. Tony knew he was about ten feet and five seconds away from the biggest lecture of his life, but he was already resolutely determined not to feel abashed in the slightest. Clint had a point, anyway- Loki probably _would_ have started blowing shit up if somebody hadn't calmed him down, and these guys were the worst choice to do it. Except maybe for Thor himself. Or Fury. Or Criss Angel. Actually, anybody but Tony seemed to be the worst choice, now that he thought about it.

Cool. He was a god deterrent. He should fit that in a resume somewhere, right next to "came back from the dead. Twice."

"Stark, get back in the car. I'm taking you to headquarters." Coulson demanded as soon as they were in whispering distance, somehow managing to hide his anger well enough that anybody walking past wouldn't immediately spot him as anything more than a businessman out on his lunch break.

Tony wasn't nearly so successful- he was pretty sure any passerby would assume he was trying to seduce all three of them and failing miserably at it, which was more or less his default. "I thought they couldn't see me at headquarters? Selective knowledge and all that; Hydra might hear about it, inevitable fear of the rising zombie apocalypse, people stocking up on Twinkies at such a rapid rate that Hostess gains an even more powerful monopoly over the goodness that is cream filled pastry."

Clint grinned, but Coulson didn't react and all and Loki frowned like he thought Tony was delusional from fever again. Oh man, he was so behind on pop culture that it was just plain cute, but Tony made a mental note to solve that problem as soon as they were confined in his Malibu retreat again. No long-term boyfriend of _his_ was going to get away with spending two months on earth without watching Zombieland at least three times.

"We've prepared a secure location. We have to debrief Laufeyson and plan our next move. And you've made it clear that house arrest is ineffective twice now." Coulson retorted, no doubt recalling that too-easy perimeter breach back in May. Hey, if the guy was going to try and keep Tony in his own house you'd think he would at least stay there to uphold his tazer-Supernanny threats but nope. Speaking of which, Tony never _had_ found out what he was up to in the Land of Enchantment… probably a bad time to ask about his New Mexico adventures. "You're going to be under our eye now."

"No. He's not." Loki normally spoke with some degree of mock respect to SHIELD agents, whether because they were soldiers like he technically was or because he didn't feel like dealing with the consequences of doing otherwise, but now there was nothing but hate in the snarl he directed toward Coulson. Clint tensed at the threat and started to reach for his belt (where he probably kept a knife, if Tony's experience with this group had taught him anything) but Coulson waved a hand to stop him, looking more passively annoyed than anything "It's _your_ fault that Schmidt has escaped me with his life. I'll cater to your whims no longer. Tony is returning home, with me, and I'll decide how I wish to deal with Schmidt, personally, later."

"Stark's home is currently the subject of a long and exceedingly detailed news report mourning his loss, and you'll cause something of a ruckus if you teleport inside in the middle of filming." Coulson pointed out dryly. News report? What news report? Tony hadn't heard about anything like _that._ "And I'm pretty sure not even Miss Potts could cover for you then."

Pepper. He hadn't said it, but of _course_ Pepper was watching over things- for one she was now the legal owner of everything in that building save the workshop and its contents (Loki's, along with a room in the house and a good deal of cash), according to the latest draft of his will. Which Tony had learned to update about every two weeks- just in case. Had they gotten around to reading that yet? JARVIS had it on file, so they'd have a hell of a time actually getting its contents, but Tony figured Pepper'd kept the lawyers at bay for the time being. No need for them to actually start handing out his stuff until he really kicked the bucket.

"You've forgotten I'm a god. I can handle such problems on my own." Loki deadpanned, folding his arms over his chest and glaring down at Coulson like it was taking every ounce of control he had not to blast the street apart with a fireball. "SHIELD's plans have led to little but disaster. What stock should I hold by them now?"

Tony could tell that Coulson was about to retaliate, which was all kinds of not-okay. They didn't understand why he was so upset and they wouldn't give a damn if they did –even Tony could tell there was something _else_ that Loki wasn't letting him see- but that didn't change the inevitable fallout if they happened to say the wrong thing. "I think you'll have plenty to deal with without bothering either of us. I know stuff can sometimes go over your head and all, but a Nazi just escaped from that building to run off and accomplish mysterious nefarious deeds after trying to blow us all up."

"Not quite mysterious." Loki sounded like he was announcing the death of his best friend, but Coulson and Clint looked like Christmas had come three months early. "Our machine is capable of mass destruction, yet Schmidt demanded we add adjustments to the original design."

Tony remembered that. A bunch of seemingly useless bs Schmidt had apparently insisted on that he'd shrugged off and gone along with- they didn't do any damage and really, he'd just been winging it with the weapon anyway. But now that he thought about it they had all functioned one way or another to the same goal- you could send the transmission from hell with that thing, if you wanted to get rid of the decidedly more awesome capacity to fire pinwheel lasers anyway and spend about twenty mil on superficial changes, anyway.

Still, he couldn't see what Schmidt could be doing with a mega-powered radio, unless... there was _something_ there, something he wasn't quite seeing, but Tony's mind hadn't been working the way he wanted it to lately. Pain in the chest and interrupted blood flow apparently made for sluggish thought and _that_ was not okay, not at all. He could deal with the rest of it, even if he spent half his time curled up and shaking with pain (because hey, at least he had Loki to comfort him and that was always a bonus) or gasping for breath because his blood wasn't carrying it right anymore. His body could be inhibited, he'd fight his way through that- but he needed his mind to do it.

Loki seemed to notice his internal dilemma and smiled wearily, though he still looked like he was about to kill somebody. Schmidt, preferably. "He needs a god. The fool hasn't realized what he had in me yet, still believes me to be some sorcerer, that idiot, but he knows we exist. When I searched the building for that bomb I found books, paintings, he'd even made up some sort of charts. He actually thinks he's about on our level." Loki sneered as if this were the highest sin in the world, glaring so viciously at a curious agent (carrying with him an armful of guns that looked like something out of Star Trek, no doubt salvaged from the building) that the man actually stumbled a few steps. "He's trying to call one down, he thinks that machine will access the bifrost with all the changes he's made."

"Will it?" Coulson wondered, apparently completely oblivious to what had just become very clear to Tony. Whatever Loki'd found in that building had told him very clearly that Schmidt was going to start bringing more deities raining down from the sky- and Tony did need to ask to know that Thor, if anyone, would respond.

Well, that was a shitstorm waiting to happen. If Thor showed up… Loki could very well just decide to start attacking people through a mini-war with his brother, stir up the chaos befitting of his name. Tony had no idea how he would react to that, what he would be able to _do_ if his boyfriend decided to go crazy, and he didn't want to have to choose, either. So first order of business: block the inter-realm travel agency Schmidt was setting up. Hide from the problem before it could arrive, wasn't that what he always did?

"Not without the tesseract powering it." Loki replied, snapping Tony out of his momentary sort-of-panic.

Coulson narrowed his eyes, Tony rolled his, and Clint looked like he'd just been hit across the face. Clearly they hadn't expected Loki to know about that mythical cube they had locked up for Erik to study. Tony was just surprised Loki hadn't tried to take it himself.

Coulson recovered first, nodding brusquely and dropping his intrigued bystander disguise (the rest of his squad was killing it for him anyway- apparently they _had_ cleared the streets, or else their agents were just morons who carted heavy weaponry through public roads all the time) and pulling out a phone from pretty much nowhere because Tony was sure he had nothing in his pockets. Or else they were magical pockets that kept all clean and pressed even _with_ bulky Stark-tech (naturally) phones shoved inside.

"Barton, get Schmidt's men back to HQ and lead the guard for the tesseract." Coulson demanded brusquely as the phone clicked the prelude to a response on the other end. Clint didn't pout like Tony had expected but turned and sprinted for the car, giving very clear instructions (_move the fucking van or I'll stick an arrow in orifices you didn't even know you had)_ to the drivers before hopping back into their makeshift lookout point. Coulson's conversation with whoever was on the other end was clipped and efficient, and he hung up less than a minute later with formerly discreet squads already mimicking Clint's example in the background.

"Nevermind. Laufeyson, if I see you anywhere near headquarters today we'll announce that Stark is much less dead than Schmidt thinks he is." Coulson fixed Loki with a harsh look, the phrasing of his words almost like a joke except Tony was pretty sure Coulson didn't know what a joke _was_. And anyway, jokes typically didn't make his chest throb with hurt from more than poison ergo, not a joke. "We need to stop Schmidt's men from taking the tesseract, not kill them before they can give us any information."

"If he's coming there-" Loki didn't sound angry anymore, more excited- so excited he was breathy, like some little kid on Crhistmas. "I won't miss that chance."

"You won't get it. Schmidt won't move in himself, he knows we'll expect it. All you'd get out of it was some grunt who didn't even know what the thing he was stealing could actually do." By some miracle of god(s?) Loki's eyes flashed with bitter anger but mostly agreement, and he nodded, accepting what Coulson was saying. "I'm assigning one of our agents to hide you two until we know where Schmidt's headed-"

"I want to go on a date." Tony cut in quickly, watching Coulson's hand halfway to dialing in a new babysitter and deciding that no, _hell_ no was he going to put up with that. He wanted to distract Loki, give him something good to make up for all the crap they were being put through, and no SHIELD agent could help with that. "Not with you, don't get your hopes up. With Loki."

"You're supposed to be dead, Stark."

"So's Elvis, but he seems to keep showing up. Sneaky bastard."

"Out of the question. If you're seen you'll become a liability, Schmidt will hunt you down and catch SHIELD in the crossfire. You might even be killed."

Well, that was surprising. Tony thought for a moment, because of the order Coulson had phrased his list of consequences in, that the agent actually _didn't_ want Tony getting himself killed (out of concern, for more than a 'liability' byproduct, more than being a consultant and inventor they needed). He quickly filed that possibility under the 'ridiculous' cabinet in his brain and waved the comment off, rolling his eyes again in annoyance.

"I've snuck around from the press all my life, and that's when they were _looking_ for me. People see me even halfway disguised and they'll just think it's a coincidence."

Considering his idea of a 'disguise' currently consisted of a hoodie and no shoes Tony couldn't really blame Coulson for his skepticism. But before any more could be voiced Loki put in his two cents, again taking Tony's arm in that possessive way he had. "I can change his appearance. I'll even alter my own, so nobody thinks I've 'moved on' too soon." The phrasing would have implied a suggestion or an offer if anybody but Loki had voiced it- he, however, sounded like he would fireball the first person who objected.

"Yup, that sounds like a plan. You take your men and do your…SHIELD things, Loki and I'll get on with our incognito date while the press scours my house. Which I would definitely press charges for, by the way, if I were publically alive to do it and they hadn't probably gotten a signed agreement for the documentary."

Coulson raised an eyebrow, seeming to run through a brief mental debate that, frankly, Tony couldn't have given half a crap about. Whatever they were told he and Loki would go off anyway, especially now that his boyfriend had just pointed out a very convenient means of keeping hidden. Magic, though stubbornly illogical, was really freaking useful. "Very well. I doubt either of you would consent to a refusal, anyway. Potts will have your house empty of the press by six, you two are to be back no later than eight."

"Are you seriously setting a curfew? Dammit mom, I _told_ you, I'm a big boy now."

"Show me a straight A report card and we'll negotiate." Coulson retorted seamlessly. "Now, are we _clear_?"

"I make no promises, only attempts." Loki replied calmly, already starting to drag Tony away, presumably somewhere safely hidden for whatever illusion he was going to place around him. The concept of changing his appearance was weird, and a bit scary actually, but definitely too interesting to pass up. Loki would never let him study his magic in a lab, so personal effects would have to do. "See to it you've found Schmidt by then."

"I make no promises." Coulson threw back, and for a moment Tony thought Loki might attack him. But his glare quickly broke into a sly grin and he nodded, slowly, as if in appreciation, before dragging Tony further along.

* * *

><p>Tony had never felt anything quite so strange as the sensation that shot through him at the prodding of Loki's spell. It wasn't pleasant, either, like his skin had turned to liquid and was rippling down his body, changing bone and muscle and whatever else it touched along the way. It was like a second appearance was being added on over his own, rather than his own body actually changing, and he half expected to still see himself when he pulled out his phone to serve as a mirror.<p>

But no, he no longer looked anything like the famously deceased Tony Stark. His hair was blond, the kind of muddy color that would have looked awful on him but made a damn fine buzz-cut on whoever he was supposed to be right now. He also had tattoos -on arms that were as toned as his even if a lot less tan and a little less muscular- of dragons and snakes and spiders and seemingly whatever else poisonous Loki could think of. If dragons were poisonous anyway, he'd never actually met one. He was the same height though- either Loki couldn't change that or hadn't been bothered to.

And the reactor. Tony pulled down his shirt (a wifebeater revealing the tips of more tattoos on his collarbone and _wow,_ his lip had just hit metal- had Loki given him a tongue piercing?) and almost stopped breathing for a moment. It wasn't there, though he could still feel the weight of the thing in his chest. But it _wasn't there_, he didn't have to look down and see Afghanistan in his body, didn't have to cover up a mocking glow that stung his eyes.

"Okay, babe, definitely get boyfriend points on this one." He decided firmly, looking up from his self- inspection to find Loki had changed himself as well. Or, well, maybe herself?

In essence he didn't look much different. A lot shorter to compensate for the gender switch, longer, tied back hair, softer features, curvier hips, longer legs- and lots of breast. It was like he'd taken himself and just turned female, though his eyes were exactly the same.

"Were you expecting a man?" Loki wondered, grinning broadly and swishing back his (her? No, he was still infinitely more predatory than any woman Tony had seen, Natasha included) hair so that it fell in a long ponytail down his back. "I didn't want to deal with the attention. You midgardians are so intolerant of each other, I thought we'd have a more normal day if I made myself like this. Do you like it?"

"Oh yeah." Tony's voice sounded different- younger. This body fit Loki's apparent age better, though Tony couldn't help cursing Schmidt for having to uphold the disguise at all. Still, bonus knowledge: Loki apparently had a thing for tattoos. "Trust me, not gonna file any complaints. Love to see what you look like under the dress. You got any tattoos?"

"One." Loki replied with a smile that gave absolutely _nothing_ away, and Tony was suddenly very determined to get him naked by the end of the night- heart problems be damned. "Now, what did you have in mind for this date?"

Tony's mind clicked in to gear immediately and he responded without thinking, already setting up a battle plan. "Lunch on the boardwalk, an afternoon on the beach, and dinner at this fucking _fantastic_ seafood place near the water." He decided firmly. Did they have seafood on Asgard? Funny, they'd never had fish together before.

Judging by Loki's look of intrigue no, they didn't- perfect. He could introduce him to the wonders of lobster, and shrimp, and calamari, and lobster, and fish, and crab. And lobster. World's best distraction for those bad days when the supervillain stubbornly refused to die. "The boardwalk is near the beach?"

"On it, actually, if you want to get technical." Venice would probably be the best choice, it was the nearest to them and hey, it was on the same stretch of beach as the Santa Monica Pier, all it'd take was a walk. "I'll hail a taxi or something."

"No need." Loki assured, taking hold of his wrist yet again, so that Tony could practically _feel_ the magic stirring up at his call. "Coming right up."

And then there was something like a hole in his stomach, an utter emptiness that lingered and _chilled_ for half a second before it pulled him forward, made his first step lurch even with Loki supporting him. It was about a minute and a half before he even realized he wasn't standing inside the lobby of some freaky old Nazi-hideout anymore.

Nobody seemed to have noticed their sudden arrival, even if they definitely hadn't been in that alley they seemed to have stepped out of a few seconds ago. Tony turned around, half expecting to see some shell-shocked homeless guy, but the only suspicious look they got was from a cat whose tail he'd almost stepped on, and it wasn't likely to raise the alarm on them. "Did we just teleport? You teleported me. To Venice. That's really creepy."

Loki grinned, looking more like a cat than ever in this form, and Tony noticed they'd had a sudden change of clothing- himself in swim trunks, Loki in a bikini top and shorts that probably just barely contained enough cloth to be more than underwear. "Yes, you just teleported. Try to get over it quickly, we have a date to get to."

VVV

Tony seemed more hyper than ever now that he was 'out' of his own body, running from stall to stall and inspecting the strange art for sale like an excitable child. Loki supposed it had something to do with the freedom- nobody stared at either of them beyond a few appreciative glances for their appearances (which was only slightly less infuriating for Tony's changed form) and nobody pulled out a camera for a candid photo. It was relaxing, even for Loki, and he'd only dealt with the press for just shy of a month. Tony had been doing it his whole life.

And _he_ was free from their sympathetic stares. Every now and then he caught half a conversation about how there would be wars popping up all over, now that Iron Man was gone, or people wondering if Stark Industries would get back in to ammunitions without Tony Stark around to guide it. These people always seemed to develop a sudden flare of powerful laryngitis before Tony could get close enough to hear a word of what they said.

Loki had never been to the beach before, but he quickly discovered he enjoyed it. Tony kept looking for glimpses of his tattoo and seemed all the more intrigued when the swimsuit kept it hidden, which often resulted in a wave catching him off guard and knocking him off his feet. For that reason Loki never let him go more than knee-deep into the water, which seemed a great source of amusement to a nearby flock of teenagers until Tony decided to point out that he may have been "whipped" (which was concerning, though Loki saw no signs of flogging and set aside that thought for a better time to discuss it) but at least he was "getting on with a hot chick every night", which seemed to shut them up.

"Now now, Tony, don't tease the children. They can't help it that they've never seen a proper relationship before." Loki chided, making a point to kiss Tony as closely as he could before turning his attention back to the water. He'd gone swimming before, of course, even on Midgard's beaches- yet it had been some hundred years, and he'd longed for the rush of life and salt water through his body that followed every dive.

Tony was much more apprehensive of the waves, though he seemed to have fun standing firm and watching as they attempted to knock him over. "But teasing children's so fun! Their little minds are still so underdeveloped, they can barely fight back. It's like wrestling a kitten or something."

From what Loki had heard Tony himself was a prime example of how wrong he was, a renowned genius even in his youth, but he made no comment to point this out. The teenager's annoyed expressions were too amusing to ruin, though they proved friendly enough once the initial hostility had passed, and Tony ended up forcing Loki to let them tag along while they ate strangely shaped "nuggets" of fowl and strips of fried potato on the sand. (Though Loki did, of course, make a point of lounging across Tony's lap while he ate.)

Another benefit Loki discovered along the way: he very much enjoyed ice cream.

So much, in fact, that he kept dragging Tony back to buy two more towering cones of the stuff to share, and ended up with chocolate or strawberry or cream all over his face until Tony, grinning, licked off the mess for him. The vendor was beginning to stare in awe at Loki's flat-and very visible- stomach whenever he approached for more, but the god offered them no explanation.

Even Tony seemed baffled by how often he was dragged to try this or that, until Loki reminded him of Utgarda's castle and how he had only ever been defeated in an eating contest by wildfire itself (who had been disguised, might he add, and was a horrid cheater so Loki refused to count that as a failure). Which of course led to such a contest, which concluded in an upset stomach for Tony and a discovered love of hamburgers for Loki.

He had not, of course, forgotten the problem with Schmidt. Ever man he passed who bore even the slightest resemblance was met with a dangerous glare, and some sense of disappointment when they inevitably proved to be no more than a curious passerby, who were all rather frightened by his venomous looks. Whenever this happened Tony would kiss him, quickly, and drag him to look at some ridiculous arcade game, or to talk to a man holding a large snake which you could, apparently, pay to hold.

The people and attractions along Venice and the Pier were, in short, some of the oddest Loki had ever seen on Midgard, though but for a select few they were by far the most entertaining.

That select few, however, turned out to be enough to ruin Loki's day.

He was not fooled into thinking Midgard still worshipped the old gods, nor did he blame or doubt them for those they had fallen under now. Whether they believed in one, many, or none was far from his concern, and he'd read up on religion often enough after being called the fifth time by some old man or woman who claimed they could "save him" despite his "sins of the flesh" involving Tony. As it turned out those were the vocal minority, and from what Loki could tell were rather poor about their interpretations of their own religious texts, but he paid them no mind (except perhaps a few scathing words in turn) and never gave the matter a second thought.

Until Tony rolled his eyes and muttered something about "radicals" as they passed a man speaking more loudly than any others on the pier. Loki turned curiously towards him, figuring at first that this was another show or gimmick.

"-and punishes those who have turned against Him and refuse to accept their salvation! Acknowledge your sins, so that you are not the next to face God's wrath for your refusal!"

People were rolling their eyes, yet stopping to listen all the same- some even seemed genuinely curious, while a man handing out biblical pamphlets looked genuinely embarrassed by the speech underway across the boardwalk. Tony, who was covered in any number of pagan symbols, was getting some very odd looks- though the preacher himself seemed not to have noticed.

"God has again played his hand in the defeat of a sinner, and yet you do not repent your own blasphemy? Join me, and save yourselves before you too burn eternally for the actions of a mere physical form."

"What on earth is he talking about?" Loki muttered, glancing around in search of whatever example this man continued to cite in the hopes he would get fear rather than annoyance out of the larger part of his audience.

"I dunno, I tend to ignore nuts like this." Tony admitted, looking around distractedly for a better source of amusement. "Hey, want to go ride the carousel? I love acting five when Pepper isn't there to stop me."

"Not at the moment, I want to know what he's going on about." Loki insisted, waving off his comment and again fixing the preacher with a curious stare. Tony only shrugged and started counting how many nails were driven into the planks that served as their floor by tapping them in turn with his foot.

"For his pride Lucifer fell from Heaven, did he not? Wasn't Brutus slain for his treachery of Caesar?" A few people shrugged, seeming to believe as Loki did that these two events were hardly rooted in the same court, but others nodded their agreement. "And now Tony Stark too has been punished for his deformed lust. There can be no denying that-"

Whatever truth the preacher had concluded from his ramblings was never heard. Loki didn't even realize he was moving until he'd crossed the pier and felt the crack of bone as his fist drove hard into the vulnerable side of the man's nose, snapping bone and cartilage and sending him sprawling before another word could form. A few people shouted in surprise, many backed up, and one or two stepped forward like they might try to apprehend Loki for his assault- though the clear strength and his female form seemed to deter them and Loki, blind with fury, barely even noticed.

"You _dare_ spout such nonsense in the name of your God?" Loki hissed, fingers clenched to the point of a furious ache. He was moving again, stepping towards the preacher, now cowering and covering his bloody nose in a sort of numb disbelief. "If anything should land you in hellfire it's abusing his name, not loving somebody."

If Loki would ever have killed one of these creatures it would have been then, if not for the sudden weight on his arm of Tony's callused hand. Familiar to him, yet so far from only to him- none of them could see him for who he was, nor would they really have been able to even without Loki's spell. "Come on, babe. We're gonna miss dinner."

He looked pale, worried, and Loki remembered immediately the danger this fight would do to his agitated heart. So he nodded, slowly, and paused just to wipe the blood on his hands off on that fool man's t-shirt before he walked with Tony, undisturbed, through the shell-shocked crowd. Many had taken out their phones, snapping pictures or video of a "criminal" whose face they could never hope to apprehend.

"Temper temper, babe. Cut those guys some slack, they actually believe what they're saying." Tony muttered as they walked, attracting confused looks and growing whispers all the way down the pier. No doubt security had been alerted by now, but as soon as they were at all hidden under the bridge Loki would make short work of that problem.

"I do not care. He doesn't know you're fine, he claims you _deserved_ it." Loki snarled, well aware of how much he must have been concerning Tony and too infuriated to care. "You should not have distracted me."

"Yeah, well, a murder might make this date a bit less romantic." Tony pointed out, pulling him to the side as they stomped down a set of wooden stairs and finally found their way back to sand. He dragged the two of them into shadow, hidden from view under a disgustingly dirty dock, and looked Loki in the eye with a well-rehearsed puff of his lip. "Don't ruin my romantic night. Pleeeeaaaasseee?"

Loki was in no mood to be swayed away from violence, but he managed a brusque nod before pulling Tony into a tight hug, not caring for the change of their appearances and the misguided roles of man or woman. Tony, after some familiar hesitation, returned the gesture, and neither moved for over a minute before Loki decided it was about time they got on with their dinner.

* * *

><p>VVV<p>

The meal was… awkward, at first.

Not the food, of course, (though one lobster was staring at him with uncomfortable intensity even after it was already on his plate) but the conversation. Loki was still boiling mad over that dumbass preacher-and let's face it, Tony had heard much worse- and for awhile he stabbed at his meal so viciously that Tony was pretty sure he could hear the poor lobster screaming in the afterlife. He'd changed them into proper attire- a fancy black dress with a slit down the side and no back for Loki, and a cropped greenish tux for Tony- but they were still attracting no end of strange, nervous looks from the staff and patrons of the restaurant. It probably had as much to do with the tattoos as it did with Loki's violent behavior but the shellfish mutilation definitely wasn't helping.

Tony didn't know if he was supposed to be making conversation, or if any attempts to do so would just end up with Loki enchanting the cutlery to fly at his face. So he sat in uncomfortable silence for awhile, chewing on his frankly _amazing_ food and every now and then tempting himself with a sip of root-beer (he was still barred from wine- dammit) with infrequent glances for his disgruntled boyfriend.

Breaking the ice was not exactly his strong point, and when he was talking to a fucking _frost giant_ he may as well have been trying to drill through the arctic.

Loki eventually set down his fork and knife, not having eaten a bite, and stared at his plate with something more like consideration than anger. "So, what do you think? How do you prefer your boyfriend appears?" He wondered idly, as though the incident with the preacher had never even happened.

Tony was happy to get off the topic without any sort of nerve-wracking heart to heart, so he quickly swallowed his mouthful of lobster and hurried to respond. "Okay, that's completely unfair, why isn't both an option? I want both. At once. Hey, could you actually do that?"

"Certainly. Is that a request?" Loki wondered with a sly smile, finally raising a forkful of meat for a taste. Tony was forcefully reminded of some Snapple-fact type thing about lobster being an aphrodisiac.

"Not completely but hey, I'm up for new things. More interested in how this form works for the moment." A steady relationship saturated with sex was no problem at all, but Tony's body couldn't help reminding him that it'd be nice to have a woman's touch every now and again. "Especially that tattoo. Where do you even have _room_ for that where the bikini could hide it?"

"Don't think too hard." Loki winked and went back to his food, leaving Tony to stare at him hopefully to no avail. "You didn't answer my question though. Some people are... unnerved that I can change form like this."

"I watched you butcher a cow, why should a little shape-shifting be a problem? Besides, you make a good woman." And he knew it, no doubt- the dress was tight, low cut, revealing in every way possible.

In other words, Loki dressed like a bit of a whore, but Tony wasn't about to complain. Anybody made an unwanted move on him and if Tony didn't beat the 'attacker' to the ground they'd have to deal with whatever Loki's magic cooked up for them. "You don't mind it?" Loki wondered, sounding surprised in an off-hand sort of way.

Tony shrugged, swallowing some more buttery shellfish. "Nope. It's cool- convenient too. If you couldn't pull off tricks like that I'd be stuck in SHIELD right now, listening to Fury blab about protocol and Nazis and the two for one eyepatch sale at Walmart. This is infinitely preferable." He raised his glass in a mock toast and grinned at Loki, though seeing somebody else's hand responding to his movements was a bit unnerving. At least nobody recognized him like this- it was the first time in his life Tony'd gone out into the public and been completely disregarded by the star-seeking press.

"Well don't get too excited. I've not fixed your body, merely cloaked it- if your heart seems in danger you must tell me immediately." Loki demanded, dropping the slightly sing-song tone of voice so that he sounded almost like his normal self, which was kind of creepy considering the soft form from which he was speaking.

Without thinking about it Tony rose one hand in mock oath and drew an 'X' across his chest with the other, saying as he did "All right, you can be my life alert. Promise- cross my heart and hope to die."

Loki tensed, and a flash of something so much like fear passed through his eyes before Tony realized what he'd said and quickly took his hand, leaning forward over the table to calm him. "It's just an expression- something kids say, it's just to show you're serious about a promise. Horrible choice of words, admittedly, but I tend to be shitty when it comes to forming acceptable sentences, so that can't be helped. I didn't mean it, you know."

He leaned forward for good measure and brushed his lips over the feminine curve of Loki's, wondering how odd this must be for his boyfriend- he at least, could still see something of the god in this form across from him. Loki, to his relief, didn't hesitate before returning the kiss, though he seemed reluctant to draw away entirely once it had finished and just leaned his forehead against Tony's.

"But you did mean it before, did you not?" Loki murmured, and this time it was Tony who froze up, wondering for a moment if there was any way he could have mistaken the meaning of the words, but Loki quickly confirmed otherwise. "Why did you do it? There were an awful lot of near-misses in that file."

No kidding. Tony was a bit freaked out that Schmidt had managed to find each and every hospital record following a suicide attempt, even those that nobody else had recognized for what they were. He'd probably been wondering if he could discredit Iron Man by making it look as if the man in the suit had just done himself in, but his relationship with Loki must have ruined that plan. "You're gonna have to be more specific."

"I'm curious about the car. But I'd rather know what started it all."

This was taboo, foreign- there were three people other than Loki who even knew that Tony's frequent accidents had been more than that. Howard (who had found him the first time and both hadn't asked then and wasn't around to talk to now) Obadiah (who'd clapped him on the shoulder and stayed silent until Tony broke into apologies) and Rhodey (who tried to talk about it and even called in a shrink once, but Tony never said a damn word). None of them had ever fallen back on this either because they didn't really care or because they knew he would refuse to say anything- but Loki was watching him with unreadable eyes, and Tony knew there'd be no point in keeping his silence.

Still. He couldn't quite meet his boyfriend's eyes when he spoke next, so he distracted himself by playing with his food instead. "First time? I was a teenage when I graduated college, I was younger than anybody else had been when they even sent in their _applications_. A lot of them probably hated me, but they thought I was a novelty or something, so they hung around me a lot- didn't hurt how rich dad was. Anyway, so dad seemed to like that I was graduating so early- it drew a lot of attention to the family, and made people more confident that the company'd be in good hands when I took over. So stocks went up, deals were made, we pretty much hit a boom, and for the first time he was bragging about me.

'Course it was all publicity, so I was pissed off that he'd finally decided to stop pretending I don't exist. I thought about what he'd do if I didn't graduate at all- there'd be a huge scandal over it if Howard Stark's kid bumped himself off." Tony shrugged and shoved aside an empty claw to the far reaches of his plate, keeping his eyes downcast. "So when my first girlfriend ended up robbing some company secrets and running off with another guy I figured hey, why the hell not? I snuck past my nanny of the time and holed up in the bathroom for hours wondering the best way to do it. If I cut my wrist and failed people'd see, and I didn't want to deal with them treating me like I was made of glass or something. So I slashed open my thigh- little me wasn't so good with alcohol, so my hands shook too much to actually hit the artery. They got me to the hospital pretty quick."

Only because Tony'd fucked up at school the day before one too many times, and the Dean had sent a scolding letter to Howard pointing out the dangers his misbehavior had on the learning environment. Dear old dad had come home to make sure his son didn't screw up what he'd come so close to earning, and since he'd never cared much for privacy it hadn't taken him long to decide Tony's silence was excuse enough for forcing entry into the room. Half Tony's blood had been draining into his sheets by then so his memory was understandably fuzzy, but he had some hazy remembrance of Howard forcing him to stay awake.

That was the first, and only, time Tony had ever seen his father looking scared.

Loki was silent, but Tony could practically _feel_ his eyes boring into him. Tony gave the lobster a particularly rough jab with his fork before he set the silverware down and gripped the edge of the table, eyes still fixed on the meal. "I'm pretty sure the car wasn't _all_ my fault. I screwed up some big deal or something because I didn't feel like going to some important meetings, and Pepper couldn't make me. She yelled at me for awhile and I just… I dunno, told her to go deal with the press then spent all day in the workshop until Obie came down talking like he was trying to make me feel like it wasn't all my fault, that she was just being unreasonable. 'Course that made me feel worse. Pretty sure now that he was _trying_ to make things worse, actually. So I went to go apologize to Pepper and she ended up shouting at me for a million different things because I did such a bad job of it, and I kind of just stared at her then walked out. On the way back… Some hiker found the wreck and called an ambulance, so no harm done, I guess."

Okay Tony, shut up, would you want to be on Loki's end of the conversation? Listening to your boyfriend ramble about all the times he'd tried to kill himself and barely failed? Well, he _had_ asked. "I almost shot myself once, but I was shaking too hard to pull the trigger. I couldn't stop imagining Pepper or Rhodey walking in and finding me with blood all over the room, and they'd think it was _their_ faults, and I just… I couldn't do it. I had to make it seem like an accident. I'd rather they thought I'd just fucked up again, so I chugged half a bottle of Nyquil and threw in some Tylenol PM for good measure, but Pepper came by and got me off to the hospital in time. I told her I was feeling sick and just wanted to sleep- she was furious with me for weeks."

He probably would and could have continued, too, even though he was talking too quickly by the end and probably sounded half hysterical to anybody who was close enough to actually hear him. But Loki kissed him again to shut him up and raised a hand to brush against his cheek, which made Tony wonder if he'd been crying or close to it. God dammit, he didn't _cry_- not really- but at least now he didn't look like himself while he did it. Probably _why_ he did it, no point hiding from the world when for once they didn't know who you were.

"Don't worry, darling. Sometimes I just want to sleep as well." Loki assured in a soft, if not small, voice. Obviously this conversation had taken a few turns for the worst, and Tony had to remind himself not to throw in any more by begging Loki not to do something he'd probably given up on doing. Neither of them wanted to die (anymore) so neither of them had any reason to be so scared, but that didn't stop a flutter of panic from jolting through his chest.

"Not anymore. Don't-you're not gonna leave me, okay?" Tony finally looked up and forced himself to meet the worry in Loki's eyes, fighting down the desire to get up and run. "I love you."

Loki didn't respond- probably a good thing, Tony had rarely managed to say those three words outside of sex or the realms some other sort of physical demand before- but he smiled softly, and nodded. Enough for now. Tony leaned back, conscious that they weren't playing up to their gender roles very well here, and shoved aside his plate so quickly chunks of lobster meat spilled off onto the surface of the table.

"Fuck this place. Let's get home- I want to be me again."

* * *

><p>VVV<p>

They appeared in the lobby of the Stark household precisely two hours and seventeen minutes after the curfew Coulson had prescribed.

SHIELD, of course, had no form of presence in the house, so even if Loki had cared about for the possibility of punishment he need not have feared it. Tony was immediately returned to his own body when they stepped on to his property, though Loki remained in his female form even then. It was an immense relief to both of them, to phrase an understatement, and Loki didn't waste a moment before pulling Tony tight and kissing him as deeply as he knew how. He responded as he ever did, taking advantage of the new difference in size to dominate the kiss and snake his hand up Loki's patrially exposed thigh as the other roped itself through his hair in search of the tie restraining it. When he found it black spilled down Loki's back like rain and Tony gripped a fistful of it, steering them backward towards the bedroom without preamble. Very much alive.

A quiet cough broke their concentration, and they pulled apart only just enough to turn and catch sight of Pepper in the doorway before Loki nuzzled against the crook of Tony's neck, and came to rest like that.

If she found it odd that Loki had suddenly become a woman or that he and Tony had been on the verge of ridding each other of their clothing in the living room then she gave no sign of it. In fact, her expression was virtually blank, not even a hint of the amusement or disapproval that usually carried when she walked in on such sights. That was surprising enough for Loki to draw his head back and focus his attention on watching her through half-narrowed eyes.

"Schmidt took the cube- Coulson called me from a hospital bed and they've got somebody named Hawkeye tracking him down." Pepper explained in a toneless voice, as if she couldn't decide how she should possibly feel about delivering this news. "Natali-Natasha's going after General Ross' experiment, and they want you two to help. I think they're expecting a war, Tony."

Tony would normally have crossed the room and feigned calm as he demanded any information Pepper could offer, at the same time doing his best to keep _her_ from panicking, yet now he cast a brief glance toward Loki, who only nodded. What should he have expected but failure from SHIELD? Even though he'd warned them, even though they knew…. Hydra must have made its move immediately, perhaps already been in wait for their arrival- the attack, no doubt, had begun before Coulson's orders to prevent it could be carried out. They would not have told him where the device had been moved, as it no doubt frequently was, and Loki knew for their stubbornness he would have reached the location far too late anyway.

Yet that did nothing to quall his anger, in fact fueled it- the only thing preventing Loki from tracking down and destroying Fury, Coulson, and Schmidt if he could manage it was the inevitability of the plan's success. Had he taken the tesseract for his own purposes SHIELD would have virtually opened war against him, and until he was guaranteed a quick victory he would not catch Tony in the middle. If he'd prevented this attack another would follow, eventually another, and another- even if he killed Schmidt. His men were practically mindless, they would follow in his footsteps like an infestation of ants, and yet one of them might very well get lucky.

Loki was a tactician above all else. Though he had acted in rash anger often lately he was through being ruled by his emotions- the sobriety forced upon him by the date with Tony (both the good and the bad of it) had given him time to think. If he let Schmidt finish his repairs and reveal how he intended to do what he no doubt wished then he could ensure it never occurred in its completion. He could not forever prevent the outcome of an unknown plan.

Though the next time he saw Coulson, whether he'd been removed from the hospital or not, was not going to be a pretty affair.

"Jesus Christ, Pep…" Tony was staring at her with something like horror, and a touch of shame Loki couldn't understand. "I should've come right back here. Don't let me leave you alone with news like that. Are you-?"

Okay? Pepper, for her part, looked terrified, and there was little wonder why. Schmidt had very nearly succeeded in killing Tony only two days before- prevented by nothing more than the unlikely flexibility of Loki's teleportation- and if they entered an all-out battle what was to say he wouldn't manage it this time? She met Loki's gaze for the space of three heartbeats before the fear all but vanished, and the businesswoman began to appear in her stance, a slightly strained sort of amusement.

"Tony, I'm not the one to be worrying about, though I do expect overtime for this. I could have been home an hour ago." Annoyed, scolding, and almost completely fabricated. Loki wondered if Tony, for how well he knew Pepper, would notice this, but if he did he chose to accept the lie.

"It's not my fault you decided to wait in my house all day- don't blame me for being irresistible."

"I think you're mistaking resignation for desire again."

"No mistake made, I've decided the two are one and the same, it saves space in the dictionary."

"That makes no sense."

"Not to you, maybe, but what about all the saved paper? Think of the trees, Pepper."

"I'll keep that in mind." Pepper deadpanned, drawing herself up in preparation for what Loki had taken to calling her 'Potts-brand grand exit', which usually included dignified stalking from whichever room Tony happened to harass her in. "SHIELD left me with a file, it's in the workshop- you need to read it tomorrow, and in _detail_. No skimming."

"Aye aye, ma'am." Tony saluted, more cheerfully than he'd done anything in the past few days, and Loki wondered what else was waiting for them downstairs. She would not have waited so long to relay one simple piece of news. "Thanks, Pep."

Pepper's lip twitched tightly at the rare display of gratitude, but she only waved it off and moved like she was taking a step forward but turned the motion into a pivot instead and made her way toward the door. "The file, Tony. Don't forget."

And she was gone as quickly as they had come. Loki turned his attention back to Tony with a kiss that was far chaster than his last, designed for reassurance more than seduction. "She will not give up on you, Tony. Do not fear it."

"Fear? I don't know the meaning of the word." Tony's response was _far_ from chaste, practically desperate- like he'd rather the last five minutes be erased from mind by passion and heat. "I have an eco-friendly mental dictionary."

_You're afraid._ Loki thought, because the word coward had flown to mind unhampered, and he found with some surprise that he rather liked it. Loki was a coward, too, and it felt safe to think Tony was no different. "Too true, darling." He teased, still keeping the movements of his mouth mockingly slow. "Didn't take you long to recover from that interruption, now did it?"

His teasing did not go unpunished. Loki was so used to towering over Tony that he'd forgotten he was no longer the larger of the two, and as such Tony had no trouble tugging him close and snaking his hands down Loki's exposed back until they caught his thighs and gave Tony perfect leverage to lift Loki off the ground. His grin was many kinds of narcissistic, and if Loki hadn't been positioned so that his legs were wrapped around Tony's hips he might have been able to make some sort of snap retort about this. The dress was not made for such movements and had slipped for up his legs, leaving little room to bar contact between his crotch and the swell of Tony's.

"Now, now, we have all night." He pointed out with a great degree of self control, taking advantage of their position to bite at Tony's neck and roll his hips into his boyfriend's.

"And I plan to make the most of it." Tony replied with a slight hitch to his breath, shifting his hold so that Loki could support himself with his own legs wrapped 'round Tony's waist and the man's grip on his ass. "I'm committing that tattoo to memory tonight."

Loki grinned but offered no hint about the mystery tattoo and returned Tony's affection in a far more passionate kiss than his last. They were both lucky this feminine form was so slight, despite Loki's refusal to lose anything in terms of strength, or he would have forced his feet to the ground. This- passion, need, excitement- were dangerous enough without any further strain on Tony's heart. It had pained him many times throughout the day, despite his determination to pretend otherwise, and yet now offered him no trouble- at the first sight of which Loki would cease and desist immediately, never mind at what point the pain hit.

Loki wasn't sure how long it took them to reach the bedroom, but he had been strategic with his teleportation, so he was certain it was no more than three minutes. And when they did JARVIS obligingly dim\med the lights near to nothing. Not that it mattered, really, they both had their eyes shut, melting into a new kiss that drowned out the day's conscious thought, and both knew the route so well that they hit the bed without so much as a passing glance for it.

Surprisingly Loki found himself sitting in Tony's lap-Tony who was still upright, and apparently not taking advantage of one rare opportunity to overbear his boyfriend. Loki shrugged off his curiosity and instead devoted his time to removing Tony of his shirt as quickly as possible while the dress complied to Tony's hands with almost no effort. Loki allowed the fabric to be pulled over her (it was impossible, in this moment, not to be unduly _aware_ of the female body) head and dived into a messy kiss as Tony expertly moved after her bra with one clever hand.

One handed. Loki didn't realize what this meant until Tony's other hand bypassed her thigh and settled between her legs. She gasped, as much out of surprise as pleasure, and let the sound dissolve into a moan as Tony rolled his fingers in quick circles over her slit. She hadn't been in this form in a very long time- it was different, so different, than as a man, and she craved more. Tony was practically merciless, guiding his hand like her body was a familiar map, fast and sensual. Heat was already flaring all throughout her body, and as she curled around his hand and fell into panting it had already begun to simmer in her womb.

It had been far too long. Tony had successfully rid her of her bra now and used his unoccupied hand to guide her head back, offering a clear view of her chest. His fingers never stilled, never slowed, and the suddenness of the pleasure was practically _unbearable_. She whined, hardly able to sit up straight, but let out a sharp cry when Tony ducked his head and closed his mouth around her hard nipple. The heat was such that she hardly realized what this meant until Tony's teeth and tongue found a brief distraction from their task.

"A rose?" His breath was hot with a grin and slightly strained in amusement, but Loki had no mind to be offended.

"Roses have thorns." Loki pointed out, though her breath hitched as Tony sucked the bud of that flower, slipping one finger to test her entrance as he did. "Oh- _ah_, do that again."

And Tony did, mimicking the circles of his finger -just barely inside her- with his tongue. "Are you-?" He was as incoherent as she was, groaning at the moan he drew from her, but the question was clear enough.

"I control everything when I transform." Loki's explanation became slightly less effective as her hips arched into Tony's hand against her own accord, pleasure spiraling from her stomach and all to her body. Rough, fast- not long now. "I th-thought you'd enjoy- _oh_."

Tony had slipped his finger further into her clit, followed with a second that brushed over her maidenhead in a way that was almost painful. She moaned his name and drove her hips forward against him, unable to form the words begging for more. His mouth shifted, turning its attention to her other breast, and he began to drive both his mouth and fingers with such brutal speed that Loki felt as if a gate had been breached- she cried out his name, body seizing all over as she came with such intensity that her whole body shook with it.

Tony groaned, moving his mouth to her collarbone and covering it in rough kisses. "_God_ Loki, you're- lie down, on the bed." He growled, far more commanding than Loki was used to, but the haze of warmth was such that she complied readily and lay back against the mattress, just within the range of an always amusing selection of wonderfully soft pillows.

Tony sat back for a moment and licked his lips with a very definite hunger as he traced his eyes down her body- from the flush of her cheeks to the wetness between her thighs. He looked like he wanted to dive down and take her like a whore (a horrible thought, really, but imagining it brought about another moan of longing) right then. His hand came to his chest though, as if reminding himself of Loki's unspoken rule, and he only guided her legs apart and ducked down to lick the gleam off her inner leg.

Loki groaned softly and grabbed hold of Tony's arm, silently urging him to get on with it, and he only grinned up at her from between her own legs. "Who was it who said we had all night?" He wondered mockingly, but lowered his head anyway and began to lap up the wet of her orgasm, dragging just the tip of his tongue along Loki's still-sensitive clit.

Her body arched off the bed as another cry stole from her throat, hips canting desperately toward Tony's mouth. His tongue was following the path of his hand, playing with her entrance then swiping heat and pressure along the outside of it, so that after that cry Loki wasn't silent for a moment. She gasped and moaned, called out and begged Tony's name, and filled the air with incoherent sounds of sex and need. The heat, the moisture, of his mouth were so foreign inside a body so used to its male form, so forgotten and long-missed that Loki wasn't at all surprised when she came again after just minutes of this, the sheen of her cum coating Tony's chin when he pulled back once more, surveying the mess he'd made of her with a look of animal lust.

"Yeah, wow, you made yourself a virgin for me." He groaned at the thought and moved back, fingers working at tearing off his slacks and underwear-both immediately tossed aside to some far corner of the room. He was still watching her, never once looked away, and the moment he was free from his clothing rushed forward to catch Loki's mouth in another kiss.

She could taste herself on his tongue and moaned eagerly, catching his lower lip in a playful bite that Tony fought for control over. Neither of them pulled back to breath nor speak for over a minute, and then Tony was only inches away, pinning her to the bed with his weight that for once overbore hers. As a man Loki couldn't have this- couldn't look up and feel like Tony was encompassing everything, swallowing him in to the demands of his body and mind. Her lips were still spread wide, waiting for his poised hips, yet he didn't move.

Loki could have broken his nose for that. He was just watching her, looking her up and down as well as he could from his angle, with his cock pressing _just_ against the slickness of her crotch. She'd never felt such a loss of control before, but the sudden _ache_ for Tony was more than she could bear and she moaned in desperation and bucked her hips, only prompting him to move his own away.

"Tony, please_._" Loki growled, angling her head so that she could suck at the sensitive flush of Tony's neck, earning a moan but no more. "I need you- I need you inside of me, filling me, _please._ I have to-to feel you all throughout, I _need_ it." More dirty talk, employing that silver tongue in a way she knew would set nothing but desire in Tony's eyes, especially when the words were nothing more than half moans.

"Birth control?" Tony wondered, moving away from her mouth so that they could look eye to eye.

"If I want to bear you a child I will- for now you need not worry of it." Loki assured as quickly as she could, shifting her hips so that she could feel just the head of Tony's member pressing into her. She tilted her head back in a breathless moan and forced her hips still, knowing if she moved them too soon she would lose even that presence of him.

"I w-won't hurt you?" Tony's teeth were clenched with the difficulty of keeping himself back, but the desire in his eyes seemed all the more pronounced for it. He was _enjoying_ this.

Loki's body writhed under the weight of Tony's, shuddering as that brought only the briefest example of what she needed. "I'm ready, I'm wet- I'm _aching_ Tony, _please_."

That was enough. "_God_, Loki." Tony groaned and drove down, impaling her virginity and driving in to the hilt in one quick thrust.

She screamed, as much from pain as pleasure, and kept her eyes open to watch as Tony shuddered with arousal. It hurt, though she'd felt it before in different womanly bodies, but when the tear passed she could focus on nothing by the thickness and the length of Tony within her. She felt every movement when he pulled all the way out, felt her body tighten in protest, searching to be filled, and knew every twitch of his cock as he pounded back in. Tears were streaming down Loki's face, half formed by nothing but pleasure so deep it numbed her mind, and she could form no more than gasping cries as she raised her hips in time with Tony's violent, now-steady thrusts.

He moaned and began to pound into her harder, so that Loki could barely force her body to keep up, to bring him as far in as possible with each movement. There was never this much _awareness_ as a man- she felt the arc of Tony's cock, the exact curve of it from the shaft to the tip, seeming to dig against her womb with every thrust. When she tightened around him she felt his arousal twitch and grow, and could pinpoint exactly where he was buried within her. Her hand flew to her stomach as if to confirm, settling above where Tony was shoving deep inside her, and _felt_ the shift of skin in time with his movements along the outside of her stomach as well as within her.

Loki could feel how _full_ she was with Tony, and the thought alone was enough that the shuddering moans became a shout of Tony's name, the rhythm a spasm of hips and legs. She couldn't keep her eyes open then and clenched them shut, along with her whole body, brought to her climax for a third time, almost too soon.

Tony's thrusts faltered, and the grip on her hips grew tighter a moment before he angled them upward, moaning in practically desperate pleasure as the angle changed, permitting him to drive in even deeper, hitting places that had missed his girth earlier. "Oh _fuck,_ Loki, you feel so good. You're- oh _god_ you're so tight." His thrusts took on a new violence of speed, and somehow his heart did not flare with pain. "I'm not done with you yet. Beg me- tell me you want me to make this hurt."

Loki choked back a moan that was half sob, loving the feeling, the sound, of domination for once- Tony had him pinned so that he couldn't move his hips, couldn't get more friction than Tony offered, and his thrusts were so deep they hurt. "Please, Tony, please. I need _more_, please." She whined complacently, tipping her head back as if baring her throat as another sharp cry took hold of her body. "Don't stop, don't- oh, oh yes, _yes_."

"God, you don't even know what you _do_ to me." Tony moaned, punctuating his frustration with a particularly hard thrust that set the pace for his assault. It was almost too much, nowhere _near_ enough, and Loki continued to gasp and beg, canting her hips wherever she had room to do so in almost frantic want. "You're just- so fucking good. I can't- oh god, slow down, I'm going to-"

Tony groaned and buried his face against the space between her shoulder and neck, hips canting wildly into her, struggling to hang on. His head ducked again and his tongue traced circles over the rose on her breast, coming to suck and lick at the nipple when his mouth clamped over it. Loki moaned again at the thought of what she was making of Tony but forced herself to whimper and bear his pace, no matter how she wanted to arch into it, bring him further.

But oh, how she wanted to. She could feel him swell with his release, felt him fighting it back, and was rocking in time with him before she knew it, increasing her pace and fucking wildly against him. She wanted to feel him pour into her, the gush of his seed filling her body, pouring through it-

Tony practically howled Loki's name again and again like a mantra when his orgasm finally took him. He fucked her all through it, spilling hot white ropes into her as the ragged thrusts of his hips started to level out. He'd gone deeper, harder than ever, and he was still moving against her however he could- she could feel him soft inside her, and a post-coital roll of his hips was enough to put her over the edge a final time.

When she finally came off the high of another orgasm Tony pulled free, her body sensing each inch slide out from within her as she tried to gain control of her breathing. Tony too was panting, though not in the pain Loki had come to fear, and he fell to her side with an almost lazy grin. Loki turned over to pull him closer, the false body shimmering away and leaving him a man once more, curled up and holding Tony against his sweat-soaked, tattooless chest. The other man's arms wrapped around his waist and he drew up half in a ball, burying his face against Loki's collarbone with a dazed yawn.

Loki was little better. His body thrummed with the bliss of sex- and sex as a woman at that. There was no denying the pleasure of keeping his normal form when with Tony, but the cuddling, the simple comfort was so much more pronounced now. Shift in gender or not he could remember the feeling of Tony's seed settled warm in his stomach like a drug, and he smiled lazily as he kissed his boyfriend's neck.

He was half gone already, exhaustion catching up with him in the form of a heavier lethargy than he had known in years, especially now that he was back to this body. Loki knew he could hardly stay awake another minute, but he pressed his lips to Tony's neck anyway, feeling for some reason he _had_ to speak.

"I'll put everything right." He promised, the words half-slurred with sleep, but Tony seemed to catch them all the same.

"Nobody said you had to." He murmured in response- so quietly that Loki stared at him for as long as his body was able, wondering if he'd simply imagined the words.

**A/N: Soooo I've never written guy/girl porn before. I hope that wasn't awful.(Though it's so awkward to re-read, omigod.)  
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**But hey, I got to write Loki all hypersexual, so that was fun. **

**Sorry if this chapter was just outright awful- I wanted to do so much more with Pepper's minor appearance, but I couldn't even explain all the random reasons behind her actions because it failed when I tried from her point of view. So I'll just sit here and stare longingly at the screen knowing it would make no sense to babble her thought process. **

**Thank you all so much for reading! Reviews are always welcome, good or bad, and if you don't want to do it here feel free to send me an anon on tumblr (welcometotheoldworld). I don't bite, promise!**


	22. Three Strikes

**A/N:So guys guess who sucks and takes forever to update? I'm so sorry this dragged on so long- AP tests, finals, and the Avengers sucked up my time. No excuse. I'll be out of school next week, so more frequent updates shall follow!**

**Also, as a side note- this chapter is (currently) unbeta'd. It's one AM and I have school tomorrow, so. No time tonight. Also, the Avengers won't be changing what I've already established for this story, still an Alternate Canon.**

**Thank you so much for your patience with me guys. I don't deserve it. _**

Tony slept in far later than Loki did- which was surprising, given the exhaustion that had overtaken the latter last night. He was still slightly dazed when he woke up, sore all over as his body attempted to remind him that it didn't appreciate all the shapeshifting he'd been doing to accommodate for his gender role-reversal, but undeniably relaxed. The room was dimly lit, JARVIS permitting not quite enough sunlight to wake them but a good amount for guessing the time, and Loki had a clear view of Tony curled up tight, the wash of blue light from his reactor filtering only barely through whatever space it could find between their bodies.

He smiled, one of the true smiles that only ever came when he was with Tony, and brushed a tentative hand over the man's forehead, tucking back a strand of loose hair. He didn't respond, even to shift towards Loki's touch as he normally did, and the smile took on the hints of a soft frown. Clearly his heart wasn't paining him at the moment, but the night before must have tired him out- he was more deeply asleep than Loki had yet seen him.

Well. He could only suppose that was a good thing. Better he slept than exhausted himself further still. Loki watched and felt the rise and fall of Tony's chest for a few long moments before carefully extracting himself from the other's grip (normally he gave some sleep-heavy whine of protest or tried to reinstate the contact, but he only snored softly and slept on) and climbing out of bed. His legs shook in protest and he took hold of the bed to steady himself on instinct, cursed under his breath and let magic soothe the ache. He'd rather not go about the day's work with a tell-tale limp.

He took as quick a shower as possible, deciding it would be better Tony didn't wake up alone in the case of another nightmare, but when he emerged from the bathroom with his hair sopping wet and slicked back Tony'd done no more than roll over. Loki smiled to himself, glad nobody could see it, and debated crawling back into bed. It would be nice. Comfortable. Something he'd never had until failing to properly kill himself.

And yet there was that file.

He thought about it a moment longer and decided Tony would likely still be asleep when he returned, anyway- and if he wasn't? Well, worse things could happen.

Loki pressed a slow kiss to Tony's forehead before he left the room, and smiled slightly when his head turned lazily, like he was too deep in sleep to fully respond but wished to. It was still hot in the room, but the chill had not entirely left Tony's skin, so Loki (marveling a moment at the domesticity of it) pulled the blanket around his shoulders, smoothed his hair behind his ear, and teleported from the bedroom.

JARVIS, it seemed, was perfectly adjusted to his teleportation by now, and the lights flicked on without any sign of the usual security confusion. "Good morning, Mr. Loki." The computer chimed automatically- no doubt having chosen against doing so when it might awaken its programmer. Or perhaps Pepper had simply taken some mechanical precaution to allow Tony the sleep he needed. Either way Loki ignored the greeting-JARVIS, he knew, was incapable of taking offense- and withdrew a rather conspicuous file from underneath the empty coffee mug feigning as a paperweight.

It wasn't all that thick, yet he assumed the information inside was extremely valuable nonetheless. Loki expected orders from SHIELD, plans perhaps- data for where they should go to meet the men Pepper had spoken of last night. But the first page he saw upon flipping open the folder was nothing of the sort, but a computer-drawn image of what at first appeared to be a few blurred rocks. Loki quickly recognized the blurs as heat signatures, however, and it became apparent that he was looking at what seemed to be a patch of shifting glaciers, and some large, even colder thing-no doubt of metal- sticking through the largest. Curious, he turned to the next image, and found himself staring at two half-page pictures of a man nearly completely encased in ice.

Well. There were more photographs of the man, from different angles, along the next few pages, showing a steady decline in the ice entrapping him until the final image offered a view of him nearly unhampered, which offered a full view of what Loki could only believe must have been an American flag fashioned into clothing. Long ruined, now, and tattered all about- revealing more skin than it covered. But the pale white underneath was not the familiar color of death, and the next page confirmed it.

Readings of vital signs, medical tests… The man in the ice was very much alive and, from what Loki could see, on the verge of being woken up. How curious. He turned a few more pages in search of elaboration and found little but that the man's name was Steve Rogers, alias Captain America, and he had been stuck in the ice caps for seventy years, milling around the ocean while the world aged around him. No more was said, but Loki delivered the name to JARVIS and waited for a search to be run, so that within minutes he was offered a screen to browse SHIELD's poorly kept records on the matter. No doubt Tony had already done something to ensure he could get past their minor security, but Loki felt comfortable relying on his magic to hack the device all the same- spells, tricks as Thor would call them, could not be traced by a firewall.

"Steve Rogers, alias Captain America- it appears he was the first successful result of the super soldier project run by Doctor Erskine, and Mr. Stark's father." JARVIS dictated helpfully, pulling up files and images both public and otherwise to give Loki a visual of what he was recounting. "He disappeared at the end of world war two when his plane went down in the ocean, following his defeat of the deep-science division Hydra, and has been presumed dead."

Or had been. It looked like SHIELD had known he was alive for nearly a month now, and only recently decided that he would survive their efforts to wake him from the ice. Efforts which, according to that pamphlet, they needed Starktech and expertise to speed along. He'd known Tony's father (Loki felt a surge of anger her, rememembering what little he'd heard of the man and despising Rogers already for their acquaintance), Fury probably assumed it would be a good idea for him to be there for the man's introduction into proper society, when that happened to come about. And no doubt Tony would be intrigued to see him, Howard must have mentioned the name at least once…

That itself was no matter. With anyone else Loki would have been anxious, but Tony was as much of a wreck as he was- neither of them was bound to risk what they could give each other by letting some flag-clad soldier get in the way. The problem, however, lay in said soldier's origins. He'd fought Hydra, fought Schmidt- SHIELD must have wanted him to return to his old job, to call on his experience in the matter and lead the fight against that damned man.

Well, they couldn't have that. Loki would not let the victory over Schmidt be passed on to some unknown boy from seventy years prior. He felt hatred boiling in his blood when he thought of the possibility at all, and decided that Fury and Coulson, or whatever other lackey had been placed in charge, would pay for even considering such an alternative. Loki thanked JARVIS and had him shut down the search, deleting its history magically a moment later, and again directed his attention to the folder. Tony already knew it was down here, he couldn't simply destroy it, and obviously SHIELD had no qualms with him reading it, seeing as Pepper had told them both where it was waiting…

No, he had to have something for Tony to see, and it had to be important enough to merit Pepper's insistence that they see it first thing in the morning. Loki searched through his conversations with and sightings around SHIELD and decided upon morphing the file's contents into a brief description of Schmidt's abilities, backstory, and whatever other information he managed to hack out of the organization's database. Tony, he knew, would never suspect it- despite Loki's insistence that magic and science were strongly connected he seemed to think it impossible for the two to actually mix.

There, it was safe now. Would Fury mention this folder at a later date? Almost certainly, but Loki didn't plan on giving him the chance to do so. SHIELD was becoming a hindrance more than just a nuisance, and something would have to be done about them as soon as possible. It shouldn't prove too difficult to engineer the Director's death during a battle with Hydra, in such a way that Tony, of course, knew nothing of Loki's part in it. A few of those agents too, if he could manage it, and probably the girl too. Romanoff. She was preferable to the rest of them, he supposed, but there was no denying that she would be dangerous to have against him, especially if she already had some connection with Tony.

There was a soft sound just outside the workshop, familiar footsteps in the rhythm Loki had come to associate with a Tony who was still not quite awake. A slight smile twitched at his lips but he didn't turn, and a moment later the door had slid open without his intervention.

"You know, usually I'm the one who comes running to the workshop after a night of heterosexual sex. This is new, makes me feel like the girl. Speaking of which, can you actually do that? Because I'm not sure if the idea's more traumatizing or kinky." Tony rambled as he approached, having to tip-toe to properly see over Loki's shoulder. Even then he strained his neck so hard in the attempt that the god, smirking more than was entirely friendly, took pity and pulled him forward with an arm wrapped around his waist.

Tony didn't seem bothered by the increasingly "feminine" role being forced upon him and only took advantage of his new position to lean back and force Loki into play-acting as a post for him to lean on. "Schmidt, Schmidt, more Schmidt, a bit of Schmidt, oh hey, look, here's Schmidt. Boring, let's get rid of it. Thought they'd at least have something on Banner, aren't we supposed to go get the big green guy today?"

Loki leaned over for a look, resting his chin against Tony's shoulder and enlisting his other hand to complete the hug he'd trapped Tony in. "That sounds like a poorly written children's book."

"Jolly green giant, pretty sure it's a canned vegetable company." Tony mused, lazily shutting the folder which, to Loki's relief, he didn't seem to find suspicious at all. "The one we're looking for's not so jolly. Bruce Banner, unparalleled genius in gamma radiation technology, part time uncontrollable rage monster. That cube Schmidt stole's gotta have something to do with it. The radiation, not the rage monster, though hey, anything's possible."

"The tesseract." Loki cut in, more calmly then he actually felt. The mortal would pay for daring to lay hands on such power- as would SHIELD for their attempts to manipulate it. It was powerful enough to wipe out this pathetic race, to fuel the most powerful spells- to bring Thor down to earth. That _must_ not happen. "Then Fury hopes for this man to track it?"

"Apparently. 'Course Natasha could handle it all on her own, ten bucks says they're only sending us because they don't want us ruining security again. I don't think most people in small Indian villages know I'm supposed to be dead." Tony shrugged, the words coming off in a yawn. "Pep didn't say how we're gonna get there. My pilots all think I kicked the bucket."

"I'm sure SHIELD's arranged something. No doubt they'll be too discourteous to offer a warning before coming to "collect" us." In which case they would have quite the wait ahead of them- Loki didn't jump to anybody's whims. "I see no need to rely on this man. My magic could find the tesseract much more quickly."

"About that- SHIELD's got a lock on your magic, you know." Tony explained idly, ignoring Loki's furious look of surprise with typical calm, though there was some wariness few would have seen in his manner. "Not a good one, mind you, but you did enough on base for them to get an idea of it. They don't want you extending power toward wherever Schmidt is-my guess they think he's got a look out for you know, after that little show back in LA. Probably right, too."

"I have ways of hiding my magic- you should have told me, they'd never have caught anything."

"Well, to be honest I only found out like two days ago, and by then it was already sort of late. I mean, they can't _do_ anything, but they can probably tell if you cast a spell on headquarters-"

"Which is a complete breach of my privacy, I'll have to be cautious whenever I'm anywhere near them, you should have told me sooner, they must have had a lock on me yesterday-"

"Nope, too busy trying to make sure Schmidt didn't blow up New York, no worries. Hey, I could hack in and delete the info if you want, haven't had a chance yet."

"Don't bother, I'll do it myself."

"Come on. I love doing things I know Fury'd disapprove of. Come on, we'll do it together, no magic, I want you to learn how to use proper technology-"

"Sir?" JARVIS, sounding highly amused, whose electronic voice never failed to unsettle Loki with its too-close semblance of humanity. "Mr. Hogan has just let himself in using the spare key, and he looks rather panicked. Am I correct in assuming he was not alerted that the rumors of your death were false?"

Hogun? For a fleeting moment Loki panicked, imagining Thor's stoic friend stocking his way into the home, somehow having found them-perhaps he'd taken a key from Pepper, or duplicated it, or… But no, _panicked._ Not a word ever to be attributed to the man Loki was thinking of. "Oh, shit. Back from vacation already? Didn't I tell him to take, like, half a year off? Nobody ever listens to me." Tony complained distractedly, apparently unperturbed by his computer's news.

"I seem to recall you complaining for hours when he requested the vacation that he may join an old friend on his boxing tour, actually."

"Oh, yeah, that's different. Send 'im down here."

"I believe he's already on his way." Loki cut in quietly, shifting his sight but not his hold and allowing himself a rather sharp smile.

Tony followed his gaze and mimicked his grin, though there was something closer to guilt than full amusement in that look, though this man, Hogan, didn't seem to recognize it as Loki could. That may of course have been due to the look of absolute shock he'd fixated them with, frozen halfway through typing in the door's pass-code with his hand hovering uselessly in the air. He was breathing hard and looking rather disheveled, though that was hardly a surprise. He must have sprinted with all he could to make it all the way down to the workshop in such a short span of time.

The door clicked open-JARVIS no doubt reading the situation accurately- but for a moment there was nothing but silence from all. "You never mentioned him." Loki said at last, still disinclined to release Tony and properly move forward to greet this newcomer.

"Yeah, well, I had a god bleeding all over my guestroom, my mind was preoccupied." He replied flippantly, freeing one hand to give the man a hearty wave. "Hey there. Nope, not a zombie, in case you were thinking of breaking out the baseball bats, but I _am_ alive, so-"

"I thought you were _dead_!" Hogan had finally regained his voice and regained enough composure to stomp his way into the room, looking half angry but otherwise too baffled for comprehensive emotion. "I had to hear about it on the _news_. I left my pals in the middle of dinner to get down here- you're not even- I called Pepper and she didn't tell me anything!"

"Sucks. Was it bad dinner? You boxing guys have no taste." Tony shrugged and turned back to JARVIS, shutting down the screens with a few quick movements before fully freeing himself from Loki's hold. Amused, he did no more than fold his now unoccupied arms, leaning back curiously to watch the exchange. "Cause then I don't really feel bad, probably did you a service."

"She just made it sound like she was here alone, and I get here and nobody answers the damn door-" Hogan continued as if Tony hadn't spoken at all, no doubt a well practiced deafness, "So I call her _again_ and she says she's down here, making me think she's having some meltdown, and then I get here and it's _you._ Why aren't you dead?"

"Whoa, don't sound so disappointed." Tony muttered, but he was still grinning, and Loki resisted the urge to retaliate for that rude comment toward his boyfriend. "It's a long story. And by long I mean, like, two months long- but hey, we got time. You've got two hours to get me incognito to SHIELD's airport…carrier… whatever it's called."

"What? You're supposed to be _dead,_ where could you possibly be going?" Hogan demanded, shock bleeding further into the annoyance Loki assumed was his default around Tony. The man himself was grinning, but Loki found he didn't like this newcomer all that much- Pepper and Rhodes were trouble enough. "I just got back, and you want to work? Isn't your hear-"

"Since when've I cared about my health? Come on, long drive, hop to it, Hogan."

"I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what's going on."

"I believe he's already expressed that that is the purpose of the ride." Loki snapped dryly, the sudden words not his usual choice for a first impression but enough to shock Hogan into realizing there was more company than his boss to deal with. He didn't seem too surprised after he'd gotten a good look, however, and Loki was forced to remember with a touch of annoyance that his face had been plastered beside Tony's all over the news lately.

To his surprise the stress seemed to melt from Hogan's body- he didn't smile, it looked as if he rarely did, but finished the path toward them and extended his hand for the taking. Loki, conscious of Tony's eye on the situation, returned the gesture without even crushing the man's hand in his own. Remarkable feat of self control, coming from him. "You're the guy who managed to stay with boss for over a month. I don't think he's gotten past a one night stand since-"

"Ah ah ah, time's a wasting. We can do the boyfriend meet and greet in the car, right now Loki and I are very late for a date with a big angry green monster of death, so it'd be nice to hurry along," Tony broke in, grabbing Loki by the hand before he could inquiry further, as if he'd had the desire to. "You'll get all the dirty details later, Happy- the sooner we get this job done the sooner I can come back to the living world."

This Hogan, for all the ill Loki already felt toward him, was certainly quick to adjust. He pursed his lips, narrowed his eyes and looked between them, but seemed to realize his best course was to agree and did so with a nod. "Fine, but you better tell me what the hell is going on, Tony, or I'm applying to a McDonalds."

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Happy's response to the situation was… well, better than Tony could have hoped. His heart, despite how much he knew Loki would disapprove, was pounding the whole way through his story. He barely noticed the formalities, felt half conscious through Loki's call with Fury demanding a location and flight number, forgot everything he said while they made their way in "disguise" to Happy's car (through the back, of course, so nobody saw two strangers leaving the empty Stark manor) even as he said it, and was numb in the mouth by the time they'd been on the road for an hour. He'd forgotten Happy. Literally _forgotten_ one of his best friends, albeit because there had been an honest-to-god… well, _god_ in the middle of his house, but Tony'd still fucked up badly enough to have nearly panicked when JARVIS told them who was waiting by the door.

It should have been a lot easier to let the guilt of that overtake his confidence- but as usual Loki had this clever way of distracting him from any of those pesky negative emotions. Happy, somehow, seemed absolutely transfixed by the guy, and didn't utter a single word of disapproval or cast Tony one of those "what have you gotten yourself into" glances the entire trip. In fact, when they were about ten minutes from their destination and ending the story on a description of Loki's bout with the preacher (events following that moment were best left out) he actually turned to Loki at the nearest red light and gave a very Happy-ish sort of nod.

"The god of mischief, right? Best we could've hoped for." Tony half expected Loki to raise a sarcastic eyebrow or bare his teeth in disdain for that too-easily misinterpreted comment, but he only gave his own little nod in return. Apparently his ability to understand more about a person than their words took much less time to develop than Tony thought it did, or else Happy was just an easier case. Or Tony was a harder one. He was willing to bet the latter- Happy wasn't exactly the most wide-open emotional book on the market.

"Don't. I'm the lucky one." Loki said calmly, and Happy turned back to driving without another comment. Tony, however, felt a slight smile twitch at the side of his mouth despite his best efforts to hide it, and grinned when he saw the tell-tale smirk that said Loki'd definitely noticed. "Romanoff is to be working with us, yes?"

"Yup. Remember, play nice- no punching her in the eye this time." Tony warned idly. Happy looked up, startled, to meet Tony's eyes through the rear-view mirror, looking both confused and vaguely impressed in a morally reluctant sort of way, but almost crashed into a semi truck and quickly drew his attention back to the road.

Which was pretty nice, though Tony figured it would be nicer if he could pull the top up and appreciate the sea-breeze air. Instead he was stuck in this car, sweltering hot, with its tinted black windows and not-good-enough air conditioning. He'd have to redesign that, eventually, though for now he just lied across Loki's lap (who needed seatbelts, anyway?) and took advantage of his below-average body temperature. The god, smiling in that soft way of his that was both terrifying and alluring, just ran his hand through Tony's hair and turned back to looking out the windows. If Happy noticed, or if either of them suspected the thorn-like pain in the back of Tony's chest, nothing was said about it, and the rest of the ride passed in nerve-wracking silence. Not that it was an uncomfortable quiet, really, just a decision on all parts not to talk anymore, but it was silence all the same and that sent shivers up Tony's spine in even the brightest moments of the day.

SHIELD was too easily accessible by road, though Tony figured it would have been a pain and a half to get past the checkpoints they met on the way without proper authority. As it was, Happy had to argue with one guy who wasn't quite up to recent events that no, he was _not_ allowed in the back seat and couldn't he just call Fury already? Surprisingly, the guard agreed-though he had a dazed look as he did it that spoke of magical involvement from the very impatient god tapping his foot against the upholstery in the back.

"Shouldn't they be expecting you guys?" Happy muttered, slamming the gas a little more roughly than was practical after the third time this happened.

Loki only shrugged, still petting Tony's hair (and he knew he should have told him to stop, really, but he couldn't quite work up the effort). "The more people who assume Tony is dead the safer he is."

"And you're okay with this boss?"

_ No. Not at all. I have to be. Don't want to be. Loki's scared I'm not. _"Yup. Pretty fun going incognito once in awhile."

"Incognito is putting on a mustache and some sun glasses. _This?_ Not incognito. This is like, Mission Impossible to the worst degree-"

"Speaking of Mission Impossible, I met this guy who looks a _lot_ like Jeremy Renner. Kind of freaky resemblance actually, maybe he was undercover as a movie star and happened to be good at it."

"Do you mean the Hawk? He wasn't bad to look at." Loki agreed calmly, and Tony expected to feel some surge of jealousy but… no. He wasn't threatened, wasn't worried- Loki was the one person he _knew_ wouldn't lie or cheat and that was just plain weird. God of mischief, three different immortal wives and probably hundreds of mortal children, yet Tony could be confident that he actually _cared_ like he never was with anyone else. Danger, danger. "Didn't seem a good actor, though."

"Ya never know, Natalie turned out to be a super spy. Drop us here, Hogan."

Happy slammed the breaks, and if not for his position Tony would've had some serious whiplash. As it was he nearly fell off the seat, but Loki held him fast with an amused, if wary, smile. "Ouch, okay, wow-speeding much? God, you're an evil chauffeur. I'd sue you for damages but I'm supposed to be dead right now."

"And nobody else would take the job." Happy pointed out, more smugly than should have been allowed. Tony stick out his tongue and wrinkled his nose in annoyance, but sat up all the same and received a quick kiss on the cheek from Loki as compensation for his troubles.

"Valid point. Pepper's at her place, for the record- if I really do die, go there first, no matter what she says." He waited for a vaguely amused thumbs-up before crawling out of the car, hesitating in preparation for… an apology? No, not his style. Maybe some veiled thank you, hidden behind a demand that his car be taken good care of, but Loki shut the door as he exited and effectively cut off any chance for conversation. Again, back in disguise- though this one had been manual, and it was only Tony even vaguely hidden behind that same hoodie he'd donned the day before. Not like it mattered, much. Knowing SHIELD-and the amount of trouble they'd passed through to get here- this little landing pad was free of all personnel not privy to the truth about Tony's "death". Maybe he should wander off, see if he could convince anyone there were ghosts invading headquarters.

"No haunting now, we're on the clock." Loki warned boredly, propelling him along with a light touch to the shoulder.

It was all Tony could do not to grab onto it, hold his hand and smile sweetly in retaliation for the gesture. But that would be a total give-away if anybody was driving by and caught a passing glance, so he only pouted and followed along reluctantly into the nearest building which seemed to have an actual plane resting on the roof. Flight decks on top of flight decks. That seemed the worst possible formula for a layout and one that would end in the inevitable crash and horribly flaming death of a few dozen people, but Tony doubted Fury would appreciate the design input.

Natasha was waiting for them at the door, bypassing the security checkpoints with nothing more sophisticated than a foot stuck in the doorway. "You're actually on time, Stark. I'm… surprised. Are you sure you didn't really die and come back to life as an almost responsible version of yourself?"

"Oh, very sure, I let Loki beat up a preacher yesterday. And mutilate shellfish." Tony explained pleasantly, to which all Natasha did was shrug in response. Probably beat up (those who thought themselves) holy-men all the time. "Fury not here for the send off? I was hoping he'd bring flowers."

"Director Fury is too busy to be running around the world looking for scientists with anger management conditions." She slid the door open the rest of the way with her foot, staring them both down defiantly until Tony consented to walk on through.

Loki was a bit more slow to follow, hesitating in the doorway to study the remnants of a bruise around Natasha's eye, no longer glaringly purple but undeniably far from healed. Tony couldn't hear what he whispered, but her face remained passive in response, so Loki figured it couldn't have been anything good. Or else it involved him somehow, in which case it was either awesome or horrible, so he tried not to think about it too strongly.

The room they were in was ridiculous- not because everything was made out of tacky metal, no, or because everyone inside it was wearing blue and black jumpsuits that looked like something out of a rejected Star Trek episode. No, the stupid thing had _even more planes inside._ Big planes, small planes, but the centerfold was an absolutely massive bit of equipment with fans on the side that Tony saw were well equipped to take off and hover with no need for a runway. Which apparently meant that the runway they _actually_ had on the roof was either obsolete or just because Fury was the world's biggest troll, and liked to watch Tony suffer.

"Another one of those things?" Loki was glaring at the plane in distaste, and Tony couldn't exactly blame him. Probably hard to hold much love for being shot off through the air when you'd fallen the whole way from another planet- but at least they were _leaving_ the creepy government institution this time.

"Unless you want to drive across the ocean." Natasha cut in sarcastically. Loki only grinned and she muttered a curse, rolling her eyes. "No, you could probably do that, couldn't you? We're taking the plane. It can have us to India in under two hours- we can be back with Banner by nightfall."

"Any reason this is mission needs three people?" Tony ignored the looks from bustling agents and placed his hand on the side of the jet/carrier thing, testing for proper welding. The metal was good, and the pieces so seamlessly put together that he could barely pinpoint each separate section. Not the worst ride they could have found, no. "Crowds tend to induce stress, not keep it at bay, and I'd rather not get all smashed today. In the literal sense, anyway."

"No drinking." Loki ordered automatically, joining him to peer critically up at the jet. The steps lowered once he had, and since there was nobody on the other side to have done it Tony suspected magical shenanigans.

"No, this mission needs _you_, and Fury doesn't trust you alone." Natasha replied simply, wisely choosing to let Loki's presence remain up for interpretation. Loki wasn't a constant shadow, but if Tony was being shipped off to some potentially dangerous recruiting fiasco than rest assured the god would follow. "Banner distrusts SHIELD, but he knows your work. You're going to ease him up, then I'll move in and explain the details."

For some reason this made Loki grin in a very typically coy way, but he'd hopped into the plane's interior before Tony could ask what that was all about, offering a hand to help either of them up. Apparently stairs were over-rated. "Let's go along, then- we've got mad scientists to hunt."

* * *

><p>Okay, new decision- planes were evil and should henceforth be banned, and Tony was stripping all of his down to scraps the moment he got home.<p>

His chest was burning. The height and speed of SHIELD's plane left the interior more pressurized than he would have been able to deal with easily on a normal basis, but now the extra burden to his body was almost too much after just five minutes full—up in the air. Natasha, thank god, found an excuse to go talk to the pilot, leaving Tony to curl around his chest and let out an unending stream of curse-words, hoping to alleviate _some_ of that sudden pain in his heart.

But no, it kept burning, and burning, and Loki pulled him in tight, the chill of his body fighting off a bit of that accompanying fever. "Okay, it's official. Worst vacation ever… and we haven't even hit the ground." Tony gasped, another string of swears (each which would have merited varying levels of shock from the MPAA) following the words. At least he could think, now. It wasn't like that first night, and he was breathing, not whining or whimpering in pain, and Loki's touch was a calm, not a necessity. "Are we there yet?"

"We're not even descending. Relax, darling- it will only hurt more if you don't." Loki murmured, soft against Tony's ear. He turned, panting slightly through the pain, to smile grimly over his shoulder.

"I want a new heart. This one's served its time, call in new troops."

"Sorry, no soldiers on reserve. You'll have to fight it out."

"Nope. _Fucking-_no, just no. Okay, ready to be there now!" Tony shouted, turning angrily towards the pilot's seat without really caring that his impatience wouldn't make it any easier to defy the laws of physics and speed things up.

Or, well, it just might. Loki hissed his cheek, a worried hand running through his hair in a way-too-familiar gesture, and the plane gave a great lurch. For a second, Tony was convinced they were going to fall, and his heart skipped a beat it very much needed. Pain blinded him, drew his knees up to the chest and forgot any words that weren't _fuck, oh god, hurts_. When that particular wave of it passed Loki had pulled him even closer, and Natasha had risen to her feet, still wearing the headphones connected to the dash as the pilot struggled with a problem that wasn't there anymore. The plane was headed straight, and much, much faster.

She exchanged a few brief words with the other line in Russian, then slowly removed the headset and turned around to face them with a critical expression. Loki tilted his head up to meet her eye, but Tony pressed his face against the god's chest and swore loudly at the same moment, not caring much to see what was passing between them.

Natasha said something then, an emotional blank and all in Russian, so Tony stood no hope of understanding the point of it. Surprisingly, Loki came back just as flawlessly, prompting the next two minutes of back and forth to occur entirely in fluent communist-speak (or whatever that place was these days). "Y-you're both _cheaters._ I'm so learning Russian now." Tony decided, resolution cracking on a pained gasp that once more drew Loki's attention away from his conversation and brought those comforting lips back to Tony's forehead.

"We're flying lower on the return. I will cloak the ship myself if you're so paranoid." Loki decided, back to English, and Natasha nodded without arguing- probably some major achievement on her "not being creepy as all hell" checklist.

"We'll be there in an hour and a half, Stark. If you can't manage it-"

"Never said I couldn't. Just-_fuck _-just… keep on flying."

Tony thought for sure they were going to argue, Loki especially, but if they did then he didn't hear it-which, considering his current state, didn't necessarily mean it hadn't happened. Even so they flew on, over country after country and a broad expanse of ocean that would have been cool to show Loki at some other time, when he wasn't curled in on himself and trying to convince his body that he _wasn't_ dying. It helped having a god beside him, giving off an endless stream of comforting words that could have been anything, really- just nice to hear. The pain never passed, though, even though it lessened considerably when they finally made their descent, each drop in altitude sucking some of the pressure off his chest and making it easier to breathe and not burn.

Yeah, he'd be sticking to the suit for awhile. He'd probably have a heart attack, but at least he could _control_ the conditions in that thing.

* * *

><p>A covert landing theirs was not. India was apparently not on the list of countries to look out for, or else SHIELD just didn't give a damn because they were badass and terrorists would be idiots to fuck with them, because the drop-off took place about a mile away from the nearest town. There was a truck waiting nearby, thank god, and before Tony could ask for a hand Loki had teleported all three of them right into its back. The driver jumped back and aimed his pistol at them, wide eyed with panic, but Natasha quickly called for him to stand down.<p>

"Warn us next time, Laufeyson." She snapped, looking more unnerved than Tony'd seen her yet. Which was to say, she was displaying some emotion besides condescension or amusement. He'd have congratulated Loki, but he was still concentrating hard on not passing out, and barely managed to force out the words for his next question.

"Somebody'll warn the guy we're coming. Ships like that can't come landing around here every day."

"Two people in that entire town have phones, and one is a CIA operative. We suspect the other might be KGB." Natasha assured bluntly, resettling herself as the car started up, bringing them with a hop skip and a bump down the worst road Tony had ever driven on- including Afghanistan. "No news is going to reach Banner before we do."

Loki cast a distasteful eye on a farmer as they hurtled past him, the poor guy stopping to stare at them in absolute awe as they left him behind. Cars? Whatever, no big deal. Guns? Even less surprising. Giant hovering aircraft and teleporting men? Yeah, probably worth a bit of a shock factor. "I prefer your country. This place is so… hot." Loki muttered, wiping back a strand of his already sweat-soaked hair.

It was nighttime, but it was also Summer and sweltering- Tony knew he'd be drenched in about an hour, but that must have been ten times worse for Loki. At least the sun wasn't up, Jotuns had to be prone to the worst sorts of sunburn. "So where is this guy?" Breathing not right, voice almost under control. Progress.

"Intelligence says he's just finished a house call for a patient and is out shopping. The market won't be crowded at this time of night, but there will be enough people for us to hide."

"Enough _white_ people?"

"Well, we might have to try a _little_."

Tony smirked wearily and leaned back, letting his head rest on Loki's shoulder for the rest of the trip, which passed with uncharacteristic silence. They were dropped off at the far edge of town, smack dab in the middle of the street, and all the way through attracted suspicious looks from animals and people alike. They weren't exactly dressed for the third world, and Loki's height and pale skin were enough of a giveaway that he didn't belong in California- here, he just looked alien to the environment. Alien as a god was meant to be. Tony found himself tugging at his suit and wishing he'd put on something a little less expensive, but the material had the added benefit of silver cufflinks and buttons, all of which he'd handed out or slipped into someone's pocket before they even made it through the streets.

Loki raised an eyebrow, smiled with the slightest twitch of his lips, but didn't say anything about it. Even Natasha, for all her insistence on protocol and sneakiness and whatever else had her ducking behind straw house to wooden hut, following crouched beside a few wandering cows and never straying far from a crowd, didn't protest the actions. Once or twice Tony attempted to crack a joke, but he was breathless just from walking and Natasha always glared at him to shut up, so he figured he was better off in silence.

And then the market. The streets were teeming with people- young, old, sick, healthy- haggling over food, cloth, pots and tools. Tony had to stop once or twice to admire hand-made trinkets, and was only vaguely surprised when Natasha took up his lead and negotiated with a butcher for a pound of pork she'd probably dump in somebody's basket before they'd even left the street. There were animals too, just going for a stroll. Three times Tony bumped into a chicken, apologized, then looked down at the foul and had to endure mischievous grins from Loki, who obviously found his politeness towards birds highly amusing.

"Hey, we eat 'em, may as well play nice." Loki laughed, a soft chuckle Tony hadn't heard in awhile, and Natasha shot them both scolding looks.

He felt like a kid at the mall for the first time (though this atmosphere was nothing new, really, he'd been in bigger, busier places for weapons demonstrations), and more than once forgot he was supposed to be looking for somebody. Only when his heart stung, or Loki hesitated in his step, distracted by some half-done spell, did Tony remember they were there on a mission. Not like he thought they stood a chance of finding Banner in a place like this- short, dark haired, Italian-tan. Lighter than the general population, but not the only semi-pale guy walking around, and he'd hidden from the government eye for years. How were they supposed to catch him?

Apparently by sheer luck. Unsurprisingly, it was Natasha who caught sight of him, bending down to talk quietly with some little girl, wringing his hands absently and nodding, whispering to her and handing her a bag of what was either drugs or medicine. Probably the latter. "I'm assuming we can't just walk up?" Tony wondered hopefully, not even bothering to check for the annoyed looks his companions would be giving him. "He'll run when he sees us."

Natasha turned under the pretense of inspecting a hand-woven bag, eyes flicking infrequently back to Banner's section of the market. Loki was completely distracted and therefore no liability- he seemed to be genuinely intrigued by a stack of chipped plates. Good thing he had no money-oblivious and well dressed as he was acting he'd have lost it all in about ten seconds, and Tony doubted there was a currency exchange nearby to even make the stuff useful to the thief. "We follow him. We can't approach here, but if he goes to check on somebody for that girl we can move in on the building without leaving him a window for escape."

A harsh cough from somewhere toward their left, made Tony cringe but he supposed it was common in a place like this. Note to self, work on more third-world repairs, including a nice big hospital and lots of guys like Banner to run it. "And if he freaks out? The kid'll be crushed in no time."

"It's been a year since his last incident. He won't let himself fail so easily." Another cough, this one rougher than the last, followed by another. Tony saw Banner hesitate slightly, looking up for the source of the noise with a mother-hen sort of frown. "Having innocents around is a risk, but it might help. If we're lucky it will make him less willing to allow a transformation."

"I don't think they're exactly on a stop and go basis."

"You're underestimating him. He wouldn't have gotten this far without control- SHIELD's been monitoring him for years. He's safe."

More coughing, a shaking quality to the rough breath that followed it, a few worried comments in a foreign language. Tony glanced up and saw people backing away, others turning in interest- nobody could risk disease in a place like this- eying that dishware stall nervously. "Safe? Yeah, right. You gotta lure him to the edge of the city, make him think you're not threatening him. If he's somewhere where he can't transform he'll just feel more confronted."

"We don't have much choice. If there's a way to do that, we will, but for now-" A sudden outbreak of whispering and more shuffling, people giving the stall as wide a berth as possible. Banner had said something to the girl and sent her hurrying off before putting down whatever he'd been inspecting and standing up straighter, taking a few steps toward the ruckus.

Damn, they were going to be seen at this rate. Tony turned to tell Loki that it was time to leave, but barely even managed to open his mouth. Another skip of the heart, a flare of pain that he barely even registered. Loki was hunched over slightly, one arm wrapped around his stomach while the other pressed a hand to his mouth, back shaking with a grating coughing fit that rattled in his chest. He was backing away from the stall, like he wanted to avoid breathing on the owner, and his hand… Tony moved forward without thinking about it and saw Natasha curse and reach for a communicator but couldn't care- Loki was bleeding, lips bright as they had been only in those first few weeks, when he'd had a hole in his lung the size of a quarter.

"What's wrong, babe? Hurt? Sick?" Tony demanded, grabbing Loki by the shoulder and feeling another flutter of panic as he realized how hard the god was trembling. Shit. "Oh, fuck- come on baby, calm down, we're gonna get you back to the jet- 'Tasha, make sure there's a damn medical kit on that plane- breath, baby, come on. I'm the one who's fucked up, remember? You're gonna be okay, just sit down, we'll get you back-"

Loki wasn't listening. He nodded as if he hadn't heard a word and tried to move forward, but only succeeded in slumping to the ground as Tony tried in vain to keep him upright. He coughed again, more weakly, when his back hit the floor, Tony brought almost against his will to his knees beside him, and seemed unable to focus on anything above him, choking on the effort to swallow back blood and pull in air. The crowd was far back now, more anxious than shocked- Tony registered in the back of his mind that this probably happened a lot, to some degree. He tried in vain to get Loki's attention, saw Natasha bend beside him and force Loki half upright, preventing him from drowning on his own blood. Tony quickly took charge of that, pulled his boyfriend close and wiped the blood off his lips, mind going numb as he did so. Fuck. What was he supposed to do- what had even _happened_? SHIELD, they needed to call SHIELD, if it was his lung again they couldn't operate in a place like this…

"Was he sick when you arrived?" Again, a jump of his heart. Tony winced but turned quickly all the same, relieved to spot Banner bending beside him but completely oblivious to the god that might do their mission.

"No. We got here like ten minutes ago, this just started up-" Great, babbling, slow down. Banner seemed to here him anyway, though Natasha rose an eyebrow at the speed of Tony's words, and started to reach into his jacket for some instrument or another.

In the end he pulled out a flashlight and turned Loki's head toward him, shining the beam in his eyes and watching him wince, still receptive to the light. Good. "I don't have my equipment here. You two, help me carry him, there's a place nearby-"

But they all froze, then, as Loki grinned, showing bloody teeth, and managed a weak little chuckle. "Why hello, Doctor Banner." He half-laughed, half-whispered, triumph flashing over his gaze as they stared with mixed confusion and suspicion.

Then he gave one last racking cough, eyes falling shut as his head dropped back in a dead faint.

**A/N:Sorry for the cliffhanger. I meant to write an explanation up, but it's off to bed for me. **

**Input's always appreciated! Especially if I failed with something. Because I don't know anything about India or where Bruce even went (though I like India, I'm sticking with India) or if it's possible to get there in two hours, even in a SHIELD jet. And I'm too exhausted to look it up right now.**


	23. Square One Is Not a Happy Place

**A/N:Every. Single. Time. I'm sorry guys, life keeps stopping me from getting these updates up at reasonable times, and this one isn't even that long and feels kind of… disjointed. One of these days I'll get back onto a proper updating schedule, just you wait.**

Natasha and Banner were probably going to kill him.

Tony had been pacing back and forth, back and forth, without pause for the last twenty minutes, and not even the slightest edge had been taken off his fears. He'd spent as long as he could bent by the bed they'd set up to treat Loki on (in the middle of the village- Banner wouldn't go near the plane) for as long as he could, but eventually he'd gotten in the way and done little else, so it was back to panic duty for him. He just didn't _get_ it. What had happened? Why now? Loki was a god, he'd said once that they couldn't evencatch mortal diseases and yet here he was, coughing up blood and moaning in pain whenever they tried to help him.

Tony had seen him far worse, but this was harder to deal with in some ways- for one thing, he had no idea what was happening or _if_ Loki could be saved. And he'd been weak after falling, too weak to put much energy into his protests- it was a sign of better health that he _could_ whimper, cough, cry out and try to fight them off, but that didn't mean it was any easier to watch. He'd been trembling the whole way there, nothing visible but enough that Tony and Natasha, doing their best to hold him between them, could feel each shudder as if it were their own skin shaking. It took all of Tony's willpower not to shout the two of them down and make sure Banner and Natasha left the room without seeing even a hint more of Loki's weakness- there'd be no point in it, and it was too late now.

"Has he shown any prior signs of sickness? Sweating, fever, maybe shortness of breath?" Banner had asked as they laid Loki down, muttering unconsciously in protest, on some straw cot in the back of his house. Dirty, uncomfortable- not enough for Loki.

Tony hadn't insisted on anything better, though, just then. "No. He was hurt awhile ago, but he's been recovering- he was practically healed."

Banner had frowned, nodded, and said no more as he set about his work, but the silence had only made things worse. Tony needed to talk, silence didn't suit him when he was stressed and there was no JARVIS here to babble to, no Pepper. Natasha and Banner were all serious business, and Loki was in no condition to hold a conversation. So Tony had just smoothed back Loki's hair, kissed him on the forehead, and tried to think of something reassuring to say but couldn't manage it and just sat in silence, no matter how stifling it was. Eventually he'd been told to move, and Banner had pulled out the freaky medical tools, and here Tony was pacing and panicking and driving the other two crazy with his footsteps.

"Any reason this guy knows my name?" Banner asked eventually, breaking the silence at last. His voice was light, yet somehow accusatory, calm but very, very meaningful. "I think I'd remember meeting somebody named Loki."

"Of course there is." Tony replied flippantly, not quite in the mood to give any more answer than that. Let Natasha deal with the sticky SHIELD business- this guy was fixing Loki up, he didn't want to antagonize him. Of course, they'd have to convince him at one point or another, but that would probably be a lot easier with Mr. Silver-tongue awake to lend a hand.

Banner glanced at Natasha, but she shook her head. To his credit the doctor only shrugged, willing to hold the conversation off until he'd done his job, and went back to feeling carefully around Loki's stomach, practically blocking the god from view. Tony had already paid him-or, rather, shoved whatever he had in his wallet into his hands against the protest that the amount was much too high. He didn't like owing people favors, and the cash would at least make him feel like he was _less_ in Banner's debt. Though if he saved Loki from something that they hadn't even noticed until now, something that could be dangerous even to a god… well, Tony'd have to do a lot more to repay him that.

It took about twenty minutes for Banner to finish his inspection, and he didn't give any sign of what he was reading throughout any of it. He took Loki's pulse, listened to his breathing and heartbeat, read his temperature and searched his stomach and chest for some sign of injury, all the while not making so much as a peep. Tony tried to glance over every now and then to get some idea of what was up, but Banner had a scalpel waiting on the desk and every time he saw it he grew pale, decided he'd rather not wait long enough to see that thing in use. Natasha did nothing but watch them both, maybe speak into her phone every now and then, but she at least seemed to be perfectly content with watching every moment of Banner's work. Well, all the same for her- Loki was just another agent, _she_ wasn't watching her boyfriend tunneling blood through his mouth.

"I think he's gonna be fine." So sudden Tony jumped, halfway through another back and forth nervous trot across the house. He stared at Banner for a moment, not quite comprehending, and then narrowed his eyes with confusion and more than a hint of suspicion.

"He's coughing up blood, that's not fine. What happened?" He demanded, seeing no hint in Loki's pain-wrought expression to indicate the god was going to be _fine_ at all.

Banner straightened up, frowning and setting aside most of his tools, as if he thought he wouldn't need them anymore. "You said he was injured- well there's signs of that all over his body, no doubt about it. Everything looks well and healed though, except for his stomach. There's bruising, but it's scattered and there are no signs of any external damage to go along with it. He's definitely not sick- his temperature is perfect, lymph nodes normal, heart rate's fine, his breathing is fine… the blood's from his stomach, not his lungs."

Not exactly reassuring. Tony brushed past Banner to get a better look at his recently shirtless boyfriend, and quickly confirmed light bruises like lines infrequently tracing along his stomach. "Well that's new." He couldn't remember Loki taking any blows to the gut recently, definitely not in those few minutes between here and the plane where he'd been absolutely fine. Tony reached out tentatively and ran a light finger over the bruising, but drew back immediately when even that made Loki gasp and grit his teeth from the pain.

"So, any ideas-?" Not illness, apparently, but some injury with an unknown source… and Tony couldn't think up even a few suspects for the origin of those bruises. He glanced at Natasha but she shook her head, reached into her pocket and stepped aside to speak into her phone. No clue from her, either.

Banner had packed up now, trading the slicey-dicey stuff for a syringe that Tony didn't like the look of in the slightest. "A few. We'll have to wait until he wakes up to know anything, though. Unless you want me to cut him open all I can do is give him painkillers for now. You really should take that money back, it's no good out here-"

"Keep it. Buy medical supplies, fund a hospital, I don't care. I don't need it." Great, so Loki was hurt but not fatally, which was awesome news except they still couldn't _do anything._ "But don't drug him. That stuff doesn't work, trust me- he's… not from around here."

"I figured. I've seen weirder things in my life than the god of mischief, Stark." Banner explained lightly, shrugging and setting the syringe aside like somebody who hadn't delivered a perfectly cryptic comment. "You, for example, are supposed to be dead. I have my own ways of keeping up with the world, you know."

"Yeah, I have a habit of not dying when I'm supposed to. Good reason for that- the news never told you guys who tried to kill me?" Banner shook his head, leaning back like he expected an interesting story, and Natasha rolled her eyes but didn't tell him to shut up just yet. "Guy named Johann Schmidt. He wants to take over the world, and he's convinced he's a god s-"

"Is he?" A perfectly legitimate question, all things considered, but it was annoying all the same. Banner hadn't spoken to Loki yet, or Schmidt for that matter, so of course he wouldn't know how _different_ they were. Still.

"Far from it. He's a Nazi-don't ask how he's alive, we're still working on that bit- who shot himself up with some funky serum that didn't work out for him too well. I mean, he's got a creepy red skull, but he doesn't turn into a giant green rage monster, so maybe you should grab a few tips from him." Tony suggested, recalling the reports of Ross' failed project, his constant refusal to accept that he was messing with a science better left forgotten. Banner said nothing, but he didn't look in the least bit bothered and Tony continued on freely, taking advantage of the guy's passive behavior to turn away and focus his attention fully on Loki without worrying about any offense he might cause. "Long story short, he set up a weapon's company, thinks I'm dangerous, and wants to use the device he stole to summon magical power from other realms and kill us all."

"And you guys want me to destroy this weapon or what?" Banner wondered, the first trace of bitterness seeping into his tone. Their voices were apparently filtering through Loki's subconscious, because the god groaned then and muttered something that might have been an attempt at words. Banner turned toward him, conversation momentarily forgotten. "He really is in pain, you know. The morphine's worth a try."

Tony winced, but nodded all the same and put his hand on Loki's shoulder, squeezing slightly. No response. Natasha glanced up at him, muttered a few more words into her phone and shut the thing off, shoving it in her pocket. "Hurry it up, Stark. We haven't got much time- Fury needs us back, now. Barton is already waiting at base."

Banner glanced pointedly at Tony, shrugging and smiling slightly when he only shook his head. "You're going to have to explain soon, you know. I'm not going to leave this guy in pain, but I'm not going along with any SHIELD schemes either. How'd you find me, anyway?"

The syringe was out again, and this time Tony didn't stop him when he moved to inject Loki with the painkiller inside. The god flinched at the contact, but a few words from Tony were enough to relax his protests. "I tend not to question SHIELD's methods. My guess? They never lost you. They're pretty good at that." He gave Natasha an annoyed look, but the girl only smiled just barely and shook her head. Obviously she was giving him a chance to practice his consulting skills. Or whatever. "Point is, Schmidt stole something of theirs and they want it back before he kills us all. Thing's loaded down with gamma radiation and you, big guy, know more about that than anyone."

"So you want me to track it. That's funny- why should I trust any of you? For one thing, you brought the god of lies to trick me into agreeing, not the best testament to your honesty." Banner pointed out, smiling slightly like he really thought the whole thing was amusing and not at all offensive. Tony wasn't sure whether or not to believe that.

"You shouldn't. Trust SHIELD, anyway, I still don't. But if this were something easy enough to handle alone I'd've rushed in there by now and kicked Schmidt's sorry ass back to the nineteen forties. Sorry to say it's not so simple- but having you around is going to make it simpler."

"You need me. And what about when I've found this thing, are they going to throw the other guy in a lab? I promise you that won't work too well."

"They didn't experiment on a god, why would they be more interested in a big green guy?" Tony pointed out, feeling more bored with the conversation than anything. He didn't _do_ manipulation- if Banner didn't want to come then why should they bother trying to make him? Besides, he was in no mood to do the thinking with every bit of his brain protesting the fact that Loki was lying here in pain and they couldn't do anything about it until they reached a proper hospital.

And the morphine hadn't done a damn thing, far as Tony could see. If anything Loki seemed more agitated than ever, now shaking slightly once more. Dammit, didn't he have magic or something to fix stuff like this? Natasha glanced over at him and sighed impatiently, apparently deciding they had higher priorities he should have been focusing on right about then. Well, tough. The gamma radiation wasn't going anywhere, and Banner wasn't all that cooperative anyway. "It's obvious, isn't it, Stark? Loki did this to himself, so stop worrying. He'll have a plan, but he's not going to get better just because you're staring at him."

"What? You think he beat himself up?" Yeah, because Loki totally enjoyed internal bleeding, it was a favorite hobby of his- which Tony meant to add as a retort, but somehow decided against it. No, Natasha probably had a point all things considered, but that only made him worry all the more. "Right. Well whatever, he still might need surgery- Doc, if you want to let the world get blown sky high then be my guest, but we can't sit around here anymore."

"I don't want to let anyone destroy anything, but I can't up and leave without proof that I'll be coming back." Banner replied calmly, now studying Loki's injury with renewed interest. "He was hurt in the stomach region before, right?"

"Yes, but that's not the point." Natasha, speaking up before Tony could confirm. "Stark's right, Doctor Banner, we're in a hurry. I can't prove that we're not after the Hulk, but for what it's worth you have my word that you will be allowed to go wherever you like as soon as we've found Schmidt."

"I don't want your word, I want Fury's. But I guess you're an extension of that?" Banner waited for Natasha to nod before shrugging, which Tony supposed was his way of showing deep thought. Guy didn't seem to do anything in a big way- well, nothing most people could do, anyway. "SHIELD hasn't done me many favors in the past. For all I know I could be bait for this guy- sounds like he'd love to get his hands on the Hulk."

Would he ever. Tony had a feeling that Schmidt would consider Banner's condition Christmas come early, but he also knew that Fury would never use somebody so valuable as bait. Unfortunately, that didn't mean he might accidentally _become_ bait if Schmidt realized who and what he was- but he had a feeling Natasha wouldn't let them leave until Banner had agreed to follow. "SHIELD doesn't do anybody favors, they do their jobs and that's it. Unfortunately their job involves saving the world, so it does some good to suck it up and help them out every now and then."

A groan from Loki cut off whatever might have come next, and this one somehow more coherent than in the past. Tony wasn't surprised to see Loki's eyelids flickering and a slight grimace of pain over his features as the god fidgeted briefly, half on the road to waking. "That's a bit fast." Banner noted, but Tony only shrugged and squeezed Loki's shoulder again. Better not to question it, where the gods were concerned.

"You up, babe?" He wondered, trying to sound lighthearted. He was going to be really damn pissed off if Loki _had_ hurt himself just to get them a bonding session with Banner.

Loki opened one eye, a little blearily and not fully aware of his surroundings by the look of things. "You didn't take me to the ship. Good." He concluded at last, speaking much more quietly than normal. The battered stomach probably had something to do with it.

"I don't get many houseguests who aren't horribly contagious. It's a nice change." Banner replied casually. "So, did you really do that to yourself?"

"Yes." Loki answered without a moment's hesitation, and Tony wasn't sure whether the feeling in his chest was hot or cold or both. Fear was definitely the latter, but anger the former and neither could decide which should be more prominent. "It was fairly easy, really. My stomach was damaged already; I just reopened a few old wounds."

"Why the hell would you do a thing like that?" Tony hissed, unable to restrain himself despite present company. Loki's other eye flickered open and he blinked in confusion, as if he thought his plan had been perfectly reasonable. "We could have gotten a chat with Banner without you coughing blood all over yourself, you know."

"You were taking too long. Besides, I ensured he stayed to listen." Loki pointed out simply, turning with only an ounce of apology away from Tony to look Banner in the eye again. "I assume they've explained the situation?"

"Yes. And I must say, the whole tricking me thing isn't the best way to get my help. Why didn't you just set up some godly illusion or something? Seems a bit strange to actually hurt yourself over this." Banner clearly thought Loki was out of his mind, and at the moment Tony was almost frustrated enough to agree.

"This way took up less energy. And besides, I can't convince you that we mean no harm if I lie about being injured- manipulation is one thing, but it's only the truth you'll get from us, Doctor." The god explained, wincing as he rested one hand over his battered stomach and shut his eyes tight in concentration. "All SHIELD wants is your help, not whatever else you fear."

The bruises were subsiding, but not vanishing- Loki'd explained something about healing being very taxing, hadn't he? But apparently it was better than having a throat full of blood. "Yeah, so they've said. You're not SHIELD though, are you?"

"No I am not." Loki admitted, voice no stronger despite the repairs. Worry won out for a moment, and Tony increased his grip on Loki's shoulder and fought back to urge to give him a reassuring kiss. Not the best course of action with an audience. "But they're the best allies one could find at the moment. If you hope to stop Schmidt's schemes, that is."

When Tony glanced back at Banner he saw that Natasha had to, and Loki's eyes never left the doctor- a bit disquieting, sure, but he only shrugged again, wringing his hands habitually as he thought. "Doesn't look like I've got much choice."

"When does anyone?" Loki wondered, though he seemed somewhat satisfied by the answer. He shut his eyes again, but his breathing did not slow into sleep. "Then we'd best get a move on-Schmidt won't wait for us."

* * *

><p>It was surprisingly easy to get Banner ready and out- all he had was a duffel bag that he filled with a few changes of clothes and a toothbrush, along with one or two books, before he was ready to go. Tony could tell how reluctant he still was, but Natasha was so brusque and down to earth that none of them had the chance to think, let alone change their minds and rush back to hide amongst the crowds (whether bovine or human, they seemed to be in pretty equal numbers). Loki refused to be carried, though he ended up being supported against Tony's shoulder for the entire walk- which the others were smart enough not to comment on.<p>

The worst part was how quiet everyone was. Loki hurt whenever he spoke, and Banner just seemed like he would rather keep himself as unobtrusive as possible, so Tony had no conversational partners but Natasha throughout the entire trip. And she was so busy dealing with Fury that they had only a one or two word exchange before she cut it off, leaving Tony to lean against Loki's shoulder without comment for about six hours. At least they weren't going at unbelievable speeds this time, so the pressure was more of a nag on his heart than an ache.

They landed in the middle of SHIELD's base, and for a moment it looked like Banner would refuse to leave the plane when he realized where they were. But there wasn't anywhere else to go, so he followed the rest of them out with only a hint of reluctance, and even managed to do no more than smile when the ramp dropped to reveal Fury waiting impatiently outside. It raised an eyebrow at the way Loki staggered but didn't ask any unwanted questions, and was as strict as ever when they walked down to meet him.

"Doctor Banner. Glad you could be convinced to come." The director held out his hand, and after a moment of staring Banner took it. In all honesty Tony was surprised he bothered- he'd have left the guy hanging. "We're flying in an expert to help you track down the tesseract, he'll be here tonight."

"But you still needed me?" Banner wondered, almost reluctantly. "Oh, well. Where will I be working?"

"I'll show you to it, in just a minute." Natasha promised, jogging down to join the rest of them and looking much less apprehensive about it. "Agent Barton is waiting for the rest of the attack team to join him."

"Attack team?" Banner looked sharply toward Fury, but the man shook his head.

"Stark, Romanoff, and Laufeyson. You're a strictly scientific hand at this point."

"I'm on the attack team? What happened to consulting?" Seemed like it was just touch and go thing with SHIELD, consultant when they needed one and warrior when they didn't. Tony wished they'd be clearer, he had no idea how to file this on a resume.

Fury was probably glaring at him, but it was pretty hard to tell with only one eye for reference. Loki's response was easier to see at least, and his protective anger was a lot scarier- though kind of adorable, but that was probably just Tony being biased. "If you want to consult with Schmidt, be my guest, but we've got bigger plans. Only a few employees stayed at Lernaea, the rest ran off with Schmidt, and Hammer's gone into hiding. We thought we'd have time while he amassed an army, but Schmidt's already got one in the wings. And he's using it."

"Using it? How, what's he done?" Loki demanded, voice now as firm as ever after a few hours of recovery. He was obviously not full fixed up after his self-mutilating stunt (and Tony was going to have a _very_ harsh talk with him about that later because come on, that was just freaky) but he was healthy enough to talk at full volume and walk independently.

"You can wait for the briefing and hear all about it." Fury retorted. "In the mean time, go join Agent Barton, and try to get settled in. You're all gonna be here for awhile."

* * *

><p>VVV<p>

What a mess this all was. They'd gotten Banner to come along with them, but Loki was frustrated to see that his methods-while effective- had done little but anger and worry Tony. Did he think a little bleeding in the stomach would do any real harm after what he'd faced before? It was practically insulting. Worse still that his body _wasn't_ healing as quickly as it should have been, even with the focus of his magic. He'd overdone the damage, it seemed, and anticipated a few nights of a sore stomach as a result.

Banner was calm, though oddly subservient. He ducked his head whenever a guard walked past, and tended to shy aside to make room for any personnel in their same hallway. Anything to avoid a confrontation, it seemed- Loki would have to remember that. He was really very curious to see this 'Hulk' in the flesh, but without proper manipulation of some sort he knew the chance would never come. Banner was not in the mind to fight.

Yet it was clear that Fury hoped to change that. Here he was, bringing the scientist to join the rest of them in some oddly comfortable little room they ended up in, prepared with multiple couches, games, a television, and a few day's stock of food. Barton was already busying himself with a set of darts and a colorful board posted on the other side of the room, and only gave a lazy thumbs up as they entered the room, turning to them and continuing to throw the darts without eyeing his target. Loki was impressed despite himself to see each land directly in the middle, though they were only bouncing of each other at this point, so that a pile of projectiles lay beneath the one that had stuck.

"Check it out, we got a crib. Or something. Guess we're all bunkmates until you get a lock on Schmidt, currently-not-so-big guy." The archer explained, waving his free hand to indicate the room as a whole. It really was rather comfortable, not the best environment for war council or anything like it.

"This seems a bit… domestic." Banner muttered, strolling cautiously into the room and not sitting down even when Tony fell back with a relaxed sigh onto the couch and received no violent effects for it. Paranoid man, the doctor seemed to be. "Where's the equipment?"

"When Doctor Selvig arrives you'll be working with him. For now, we're being debriefed." Romanoff explained, sitting opposite Tony in a much more dignified manner. Loki rested beside his lover, shifting so that he could lay his head in Tony's lap and let his feet dangle off the edge of the couch. Much more comfortable.

Mostly everyone ignored this, though Fury did roll his one eye as he stood where they could all see him. Not entirely an impressive figure, considering he was in the middle of what could easily pass as a recreational bar. "Take a seat, Banner. This won't take long."

"Then there's no point in sitting." The doctor pointed out, continuing to wring his hands nervously in the background and not move another step.

Fury only shrugged, though Loki suspected he wasn't happy to have his hospitality refused. Or else he was just hoping to see the man annoyed in any way available, that was certainly a possibility. "Suit yourself. Schmidt's not too happy about being rushed out of his office like that- looks like he was cooking up something big, and we stopped him before he could finish it. Didn't even have all the parts."

"How do you know?" Tony was looking pleased, but Loki knew better than to expect good news from anything Schmidt was involved with.

"Because he just went and got 'em. One was an experimental substance being studied in Holland, can't be found anywhere else in the world. Schmidt's army killed every man in the lab to get it."

"And SHIELD let this happen? Where is he now, didn't you track him?" Tony demanded, sitting up straighter but not moving sharply enough to dislodge Loki, who had narrowed his eyes but nothing more. Schmidt was on the move, then.

"I agree. Set up cameras, and networks. I'm sure you have enough to find him without my help if he's being that… obvious." Banner was frowning now, just barely enough to be noticed. Fury had done his job, though- the doctor was obvious repulsed by Schmidt, and Loki didn't doubt he would help if he could to remove the tesseract from his power. Not to fight, though, they'd need a much bigger push for that.

Barton had abandoned his darts, not looking furious like Tony or even disgusted like Romanoff, more tense than anything, almost confused. "Schmidt's supposed to be on the down-low, now he's killing scientists? That doesn't sound right."

"_Schmidt_ isn't doing a damn thing. His men did all the dirty work, and not one of them returned to the same location when we tracked them. The few we captured for interrogation took a bite of cyanide before we could get more than two words out of 'em."

"And what were those two words?" Loki wondered, smiling slightly despite himself. Oh, he knew perfectly well after reading the file of that man frozen in the ice- old habits died hard it seemed.

Fury gave him an unreadable look, but didn't answer. No point, really- _hail Hydra_ was hardly a useful supply of information. "We need Schmidt, not his goons. _That's_ why you're here, Banner. The rest of you are to be ready for battle at all times, to leave the second I give the order." He turned to leave, letting the dramatic flip of his coat end his dull little performance. He looked at them over his shoulder once he was at the door, and with a few cliché but nonetheless heavy departing words went on his way.

"Gentleman, we are officially at war."

**A/N:And here you go. My medical knowledge is vague and nonexistent, so I skimmed over the procedure stuff. Sorry for the simple resolution to the cliffhanger-it was meant to be resolved last chapter, but I ran out of time before I could finish. Here's hoping next time doesn't take me so damn long.**


	24. Peacetime Woes

**A/N:** **Sorry this is sort of rough and short guys, I wanted to get it out to you before I left on my trip to Boston. I hope you enjoy it!:) (And thank you so much for your support/reviews everybody!)**

Theatrics aside, Loki found the remainder of the night to be surprisingly… enjoyable. He had expected tension and subtle hatred to be all he felt but for those not-infrequent moments when Tony would kiss him, or grin at him, or touch him and remind him that he was there. Yet it seemed as if their wait for the call to action (and Loki found the concept of _waiting_ very annoying in itself, but was content to let SHIELD do the searching for him) was meant to be carried out in comfort, and amusement. Barton, before long, insisted that there was no reason to sit around like old hags and worry the night away when there was perfectly good alcohol in the room.

"I don't drink." Banner insisted, to nobody's surprise, and nobody attempted to force him. Tony was more than willing, but Loki's glare dissuaded anybody from making the offer.

Romanoff left with the doctor after only half an hour, spurned by a call from the Director, but returned within ten minutes of departure, bringing with her one agent Coulson. Barton was much perkier in her presence, but Loki felt his mood deplete exponentially at the company- until Coulson made it clear that he wasn't delivering more bad news. He would, apparently, be joining them in the fight.

"You?" Loki didn't even attempt to hide his disbelief- the man was even slighter than Stark, and had none of the specialized muscle that Barton boasted. "What do you intend to do, lecture Schmidt for his wrongdoings?"

"I intend to shoot his little henchmen upside the head. If we need to torture Schmidt I'll go for your suggestion, but I'd bet you can talk him to death better than I could." Coulson retorted, catching the bottle Barton threw him without so much as flinching. Hardly an impressive feat, but more than Loki would have expected from him.

Loki appraised him a moment longer, and though Barton apparently saw no danger in the situation (either he overestimated Coulson or underestimated Loki, it seemed) both Romanoff and Tony shared wary looks. But the agent held his gaze, and Loki recalled what Pepper had told them before, about calling the man in the hospital. He certainly looked worse than before, bruises dotting his skin and a slight shift in the fabric revealing bandages beneath his suit jacket. He was still the fool who had ruined their previous attempt simply for _protocol_, but he was as angry as the rest of them. Loki turned to look at Romanoff and found her as impassive as ever, but Tony shared that anger and Barton looked positively livid at further inspection- Loki didn't doubt something as simple as procedure would be enough to hold any of them back from filling Schmidt's base with blood.

Loki did not want to waste time on underlings- he was after Schmidt, and he would not let any of them take that life. But they would be useful for dealing with the others, so Loki only waved his wrist and the cap of Coulson's bottle dissolved with something like a snap. "I should think so. If there is any torture to be done, I will be the one to do it."

If that was a sign of good faith, or simply of temporary truce, even Loki was not sure, but the tension dissolved as Coulson nodded, apparently willing to accept either gesture. "We'll see." He replied, taking a tentative mouthful of the drink and stepping past Loki, heading toward the couches. "Have you been playing cards all night, really? The god of mischief can't do better than that?"

"Not legally."

"We haven't let him pick what to do, we think it might lead to the downfall of a few major western civilizations."

"That's quite possible, certainly."

"Cards are out. Stark, you and your boyfriend pick a movie. Barton, help me with the food. Romanoff, set up shot glasses, nothing strong. We can't have you fighting Nazis with a hangover."

Loki rolled his eyes, unsurprised to see that the man was as much of a soldier when it came to recreation as he was on the battlefield. Tony gave a mock salute and hopped to his feet, forcing Loki (who'd been reclining on his lap) to follow suit. The room did, in fact, have a large TV and an extensive selection of films, most of which Tony rejected after searching for about two minutes. "SHIELD needs to get Netflix or something, this selection is just sad. Sure we can't torrent stuff? This is a government organization, you'd think they had good pirates."

"This sounds interesting. Twilight, what's that about?" Loki reached for the case, but Tony shoved his hand aside before he could even touch it.

"No, just- god, no. Why do they even have that? No. We're not watching that, or anything with titles written in that same pseudo-Victorian script."

"Well, now I'm just curious."

"Sparkling vampires."

"…. What about this one? Star Wars?"

Eventually they decided on a film, though Loki had no idea what could possibly be special about a boy named Harry Potter or why they should care if he was involved with a stone, and had it ready to play in SHIELD's television. In a bizarre display of normality, the agents had set up popcorn, chips, dip, chicken (in a rather odd shape), and other snacks beside miss Romanoff's display of shot glasses and soda. Barton claimed it was a party, and Loki had to admit it was lacking the usual air of a battle waiting to happen, but it was more entertaining than sitting around Asgard's halls listening to the warriors bellow about what feats they planned to perform in the upcoming war.

"What I don't get," Barton began an hour or so into the movie, after the young boy with his (horridly inaccurate) magic had been nearly eaten by a three-headed dog, and they'd succeeded in downing down two liters of soda due to the inappropriate number of times somebody brandished a wand, "is why Schmidt's waiting at all. Just call the god down and be done with it- what's he looking for?"

"A show. He's a drama queen- he wants a ritual, some big bad Viking showdown. We'll be lucky if he doesn't sacrifice any virgins." Tony concluded, grinning apologetically when Loki raised an annoyed eyebrow at the cultural jab. He leaned up (they were, as ever, situated comfortably despite the company, Tony lying over Loki's chest while the latter held him close around the waist) and gave him a consoling kiss on the cheek. "He's going to set things up properly."

"Somewhere specific. What about Norway?" Romanov considered, sitting alone by herself in the room's only single armchair. "Seems appropriate, we have agents there- if we call now, they can begin the search."

"No, Schmidt had access to your records, you're forgetting." Loki cut in, shaking his head in disbelief as the three adolescents made it back, unscathed, to their rooms. The security in that school was _horrendous_. "He'll be looking for the site of an Einstein Rosen-bridge, closer by and still theatrically significant."

"We have Eric Selvig on base, he's already marked each recorded viewing and we've sent agents to the locations." Coulson was resting beside Barton on the couch, though he seemed far less amused by the movie than did his companion. "He and Banner are monitoring those locations specifically."

"I'm guessing he won't go for New Mexico." The archer concluded, tossing bits of popcorn into the air and catching them in his mouth. "The place is a bit of a hot spot."

"Apparently Utah's an option."

"The hell?"

"Don't ask. I've also landed in Washington before, and Wyoming- we have quite a few paths."

"I think he'll pick a city. The lights, the people- he'll want the attention, and he can set that device up on a building, too. Height's bound to give him an advantage." Romanov noted.

"He'd have plenty of power, too, he wouldn't have to come up with a generator or a reactor. Or magic." Tony added, glancing up at Loki pointedly. "Bet he'd still love to do it. That must be why he wanted you when you showed off your tricks- he thinks magic will draw the god's attention better than electricity."

"He is mistaken. Magic we have plenty of, electricity is far rarer. Only your realm makes use of it." Oh, look, the giant bearded man was back. Loki didn't like him, much.

"Well, we can assume he won't know that. And if he does, he's just even more likely to pick a city."

"Well, if Banner finds a place in the city you know where to look first." Tony shrugged, raising a hand to hush them up. "Now be quiet, I love this part."

There was a collective eye-roll amongst the rest of them, but Tony was too busy watching the movie to care for their opinions. Loki wasn't sure whether his taste was more idiotic or endearing, but either way he kissed Tony on the forehead, lips curved up in a slight smile. At least they were done arguing about that business in India- the both of them were still aching, Loki's stomach sore and mouth tasting of blood while Tony flinched every now and then from a pain in his chest. Neither of them was at their peak of health, but they were perfectly prepared to go up against Schmidt and his men.

At that point the silence remained intact until the end of the movie, aside from a few scoffing comments at the more ridiculous moments, by which point Doctor Banner had returned, along with that scientist Thor was so fond of. Selvig. Loki's smile for him was more predatory than anything, and the man swallowed nervously but kept his gaze strong- there was nothing Loki could do to him in present company, after all.

"So, what've you found out?" Barton asked eagerly, sitting up with something of a hop as soon as the end credits started rolling.

"We marked a few locations that we thought might have been right, but there's no way to tell for sure from here. Fury sent a team out, but he wants you guys waiting until they've finished scouting. Doesn't want to split you up, he said." Banner explained, sitting down in one of the few free spaces and grabbing a handful of popcorn. "I'll be leaving tomorrow, unless they need me for anything else."

"What, not going to join the good fight? I'm sure the big guy could tear that weapon apart." Tony pointed out, sitting up just enough that Loki could easily rest his chin against the top of his head.

"I tend not to willingly call the Other Guy."

"Am I the only one who thinks that sounds suggestive? The "other guy"." Barton muttered, putting as much of a leer as possible into those two words. Banner's lips twitched into a good-natured smile, but Romanoff rolled her eyes and threw popcorn at him from across the room.

"Okay, phallic references aside, we need a strategy. Schmidt's guns can destroy anything with a touch, it won't matter where he hits you- you'll be blown to nothing." The Widow continued grimly. "Barton and I can stick to a distance if we need to, but that will tear right through Stark's suit. And Laufeyson-"

"Schmidt's guns are not made to kill a god. I need not fear them." Loki replied absently, raising an eyebrow at Selvig when he saw the man hesitating to leave. "Do you need something?"

"Yes. I wanted to you, actually. Alone." The man said at last, nervousness touching his voice but not overwhelming it.

Tony and Loki shared a brief look, and the god smiled off his lover's concern- he would be perfectly safe, and he wouldn't be killing anybody either. Still… "Very well, but I want to know what to do about Tony first. Banner, you know the power source Schmidt is using, could you build something to negate it?"

"Probably, with the right equipment."

"You've got. SHIELD's got some nice stuff, must admit. We'll work on that, then." Tony decided, sitting up at last to allow Loki to rise from the couch. "Maybe even find a way to protect the normal folk over there. You hurry back, okay?"

"Of course." Loki kissed Tony a brief farewell-ignoring Barton's dramatic gagging in the background and Banner's half formed smile- before standing to follow Selvig. "Lead the way, quickly."

0

Selvig didn't go far, but they did end up outside by the time he was finished walking- SHIELD agents not far off, but not close enough to hear. It was nighttime now, and the heaviness of the evening was a welcome relief to Loki. He'd have to get out on his own after this- he loved every minutes with Tony, but solitude was a gift he had not had in too long. Once Schmidt was gone he would take a few days to himself, somewhere no human could survive alone.

"What is it, then? Not here to threaten me, are you?" Loki wondered, grinning almost hopefully.

"No." Well, damn. "I'm here to warn you- that team there, they will turn on you. I know your kind, you want to clean up Schmidt's mess then carry on with what he failed to do- and you won't win."

"Is that so." Loki raised an eyebrow, waiting for Selvig to continue. Surely that couldn't have been all he had to say.

"Yes. Stark, too. Are you planning to kill them? To kill Jane?"

"You dare-? …No. I would _never_ kill Tony." Loki growled, though his conviction did not carry so strongly to the others. If they got in his way, if he ever had cause to kill them… yes, he would do it without hesitation, but what would Tony think? To make any huge, personal move against SHIELD would force the Iron Man to pick sides, and Loki knew what his choice would be. Love each other they might, but Tony would not allow the destruction of his world. "Nor her. While Tony is still mine I will make no move against the earth without cause." Or certainty of victory, a chance to explain and force Tony to see his side.

But oh, how he wanted to tear them apart. All of them, but that girl especially, the reason why Selvig was watching him with such fierce eyes, trying to detect a lie. She had _ruined_ Thor beyond his usual arrogance and stupidity, made him so soft for the mortals- treating them like they were as good as any in the nine realms. She had dared to interfere with their lives, dared to speak to him as if she were on his level. She was the part he hated most about this wretched planet.

"You can't stay here forever." Selvig scolded at last, neither confirming or denying whether he still held suspicion for Loki. "You don't belong on this planet."

"Realm." Loki corrected automatically, eyes narrowing into a glare that made the mortal duck his eyes nervously, but look back up again moments later. "And I don't belong much of anywhere- your planet will do for now."

"And when you get bored of it?"

"I'll be on my way. Or not- I have nothing to gain from leaving this place until Tony is dead, and I do hope that won't be for a long while. After which? Well, my temper might not be _agreeable_."

Selvig looked frightened for a moment, but also a touch disappointed- Loki hated a look like that, hated everything about that damned emotion. He wanted to rip the man's eyes out, just to make it _go away_. "You'd only taint his memory. Don't tell me he would agree with that."

Loki moved without even thinking about it, reaching for Selvig's neck and applying a barely-there pressure that made the man's eyes widen to twice their size. The nearby SHIELD agents called out a warning, one even raised and cocked his gun, but Loki paid them no mind. "Don't speak down to me, mortal." He spat, grip tightening slowly with each word. "Do not forget my age, simply because I have a young face- I have seen and lived through the very formation of your kind. Through each rise and fall of an empire, for every war, and bloodbath, and pathetic human squabble I was _there._ Laughing through it all. Humanity needs these wars, it _thrives_ off it. Do not lecture me on tainted memory, boy- I know far more about memory than you ever will."

With a minimal effort only Loki shoved Selvig back, watching with only the barest satisfaction as the man hit the ground, coughing and rubbing his sore neck. His breathing hadn't even been disrupted by Loki's grip, though he could easily have ripped out the man's throat, and he was more startled than wounded. The agents ran over, two bending by the scientist to see how he fared while another kept their weapon trained on Loki, who snarled a warning that the man failed to head. They would dare to threaten him, after all he had done for this pathetic organization?

"It's okay, it was just a misunderstanding." Selvig said quickly, voice cracking slightly but none the worse for wear. The agents looked more than ready to argue, but his imploring look seemed to alert him to some danger if they continued. Loki was a top priority soldier to them now- they needed him to catch Schmidt, and he knew they all knew it.

"Let's hope we can avoid more in the future, Doctor Selvig. I would hate to have another _disagreement_." Loki snapped, his grin feral and brief before he pushed past the soldiers and made his way back towards the building, taking his time to relish the night.

VVV

Banner was a genius, even Tony had to admit. And he wasn't the boring, stuffy tie-and-slacks kind of genius, either, but witty and sly and so perfectly subtle that Tony almost wished he was single. (Almost being synonymous for not at all, because he wouldn't give up Loki for all the geniuses in the world, and he was pretty sure that Banner was straight anyway.) Together they managed to come up with a gamma-dispersing addition to the repulsors, which would draw in the worst of the damage and fire it back at whatever pseudo-Nazi had fired it. In theory, anyway- they had to build it still, and there was no chance of testing things until they were actually in the middle of combat.

Well, he had all night. He'd already sent to have the suit brought to him, along with an extensive list of tools and three kinds of coffee, because the stuff they had in here tasted like dirt. Banner had agreed to help him until it was time for him to jet it off back to India, but Tony wasn't sure how much help he would willingly take. From this guy, anyway- he'd let Loki give him a hand with the suit, because… well, it was Loki.

Loki, who didn't return for nearly an hour, and when he did came back alone, which immediately put everybody on high-alert. Coulson, Barton, and Natasha all reached immediately toward their guns, though none of them pulled them out just yet. "He's fine. We had, as he put it, a miscommunication and he returned to that hotel of his to speak with my brother's _woman._" Loki sneered, his vicious look remembering that first day on base. "Have you come up with a solution?"

"Yup. Designs right here." Tony waved the makeshift blueprints around proudly, relishing the relief that flickered over Loki's expression. "Ready to magic these up with me?"

Loki came to join him, ignoring the suspicious looks the others were sharing, and bent to see what he and Banner had come up with. "I assume they're bringing parts?"

"'Course. I was going to apply them tonight, work something similar into a vest or something for the rest of us silly humans."

"That vest would weigh over ninety pounds if it were to be effective. You underestimate the tesseract- it will destroy your gloves, not be abated by them." Loki warned, putting the papers down and shaking his head decisively. "No, earth isn't quite up to defending from that. The vibranium might do it, but you'd need much more than you have. I will use protection spells on each of you, but you'll have to suffer through some very ritualistic processes."

"What, gonna mix your blood with ours or something?" Barton wondered, grinning at the concept.

"Don't be ridiculous. You'll be drinking it."

The archer's expression went from laughing to horrified so quickly that he probably just barely avoided pulling a muscle. "You're joking. You have _got_ to be joking."

"Unfortunately not. Don't worry, I'm told I taste wonderful. Right, Tony?"

"He speaks the truth."

"That's about ten times the information I would ever have needed about your sex life." Natasha points out, grimacing despite herself. "I don't drink blood."

"That sounds… horribly unsanitary." Banner agreed, looking pleasantly disturbed. As if those two things could go together, but he made it work. "Is there any chanting in Latin involved? I can do that part, I know Latin."

"So does 'Tasha, and her voice is sexier." Tony pointed out, earning a smile from Banner that he suspected was very rare. "Though she'll be busy chugging blood, so-"

"I am _not_ drinking your boyfriend, Stark."

"I hope not, only I can do that. His blood though, that's fine."

"Really now, it's just one drop. It's far easier to cast physical magic on somebody who already has a bit inside of them." Loki explained at last, though none of their discomfort seemed to be greatly eased. "Your other option is to be dissolved by ray guns. Take your pick."

"I'm tempted to take the guns." Coulson replied, probably in complete seriousness. He looked like he was seriously debating whether or not better chances of survival were worth tasting Loki's blood, but Barton kicked his shin and whispered a few angry words that had him nodding in reluctant agreement.

Ah, right. Tony grinned despite himself, but nobody bothered to question his odd behavior- so, that confirmed one theory. He'd never thought Coulson would go for guys, but maybe he'd learned to stop caring about silly things like gender while working with SHIELD. No guessing the sort of undercover missions they ended up with.

Eventually they returned to that "pretending to be comfortable because this whole thing is fucked up enough already" atmosphere they'd had going earlier, and he and Loki settled back on the couch to watch the others attempting to play a round of Monopoly without killing each other. There was still something tense in Loki's posture, and Tony wanted badly to ease the kinks out, strip him down and turn his muscle to rubber, but present company wouldn't exactly allow for it. He didn't like that, having restrictions on where he could go and what to do- this next mission could very well be the end of either of them, and this wasn't how he wanted to spend his last non-bloody hours.

"Let's go on a date." He requested suddenly, shocking Loki out of some sullen train of thought. The hand that had been absently stroking his hair stilled, and the god blinked down on him in confusion. "I mean it- disguise us, and let's go out. I'm tired of this place."

"We have to be here, Tony. I would rather not be late getting any news that may come about." Loki, at least, just sounded resigned- Anyone else would have drawn on that 'oh, god, he's acting like a child _again_, why don't you just _get it_, Tony?' voice that Pepper had perfected and everyone in SHIELD seemed to love. Tony fucking hated it, even if they all thought he didn't even notice.

"We'll be quick. I just want to do something fun tonight, in case Schmidt destroys the world. Let's get dinner or go dancing at least."

"I can bring us food, here."

"I meant alone."

"That I can't do." Loki kissed him, briefly and as close to apologetic as he could ever become. "But I _can_ take you dancing."

The next moment Tony was being pulled to his feet by a rough hand on his wrist, and the game of Monopoly stuttered to a halt as the radio started playing classical music with no prompting or CD. The thing wasn't even plugged in. Banner gave a start and everyone, sans Loki, jumped a bit, but there was no green involved, and Tony therefore allowed himself to be dragged toward the less cluttered center of the room.

Natasha rolled her eyes and shared a brief exchange with Barton, which made the rest of them grin and Loki wink playfully. Tony raised an eyebrow but the god shook his head, taking his hand in one of his own as the other slid down to his waist. "You _do_ know how to dance, yes?"

"'Course. How else would I charm all the ladies?"

"Money."

"Ah, right."

"Just follow me." Loki purred, and a moment later they were moving. Tony _did_ know how to Waltz, thank you very much, and fell into the steps as easily as anything when the music encouraged it. "Have you played the woman's part before?"

"There was this bet in high school. It involved two monkeys, a hot wheels toy track, and four beers. Surprisingly, those little fuckers do _not_ appreciate small plastic cars."

"No details, please."

Tony laughed, but consented to let Loki lead him around the room (Barton was laughing his ass off, but Coulson silenced him with a _look_), slower than was typical, too close together to dance properly. Loki's body seemed to encompass him in cold rather than heat, which should have been impossible but was nice all the same, and without even thinking about it he let his head come to rest against the god's shoulder, leaning against his neck. He heard a chuckle and knew Loki was smiling, which prompted the hint of a smile from Tony as well, and had him relax further into his touch. This was nice, very nice, he'd be content for a good long while if he just didn't have to _move_-

"Not asleep, are you, Stark?"

Tony practically jolted at Coulson's voice, only recalling that the others were there just then. He grinned, unabashed, and winked in response to their amusement- Banner looked uncomfortable, and he could only imagine Loki wasn't being so sporting about the interruption. "No way. There's been far too little activity and far too much clothing for me to sleep yet."

"Do be quiet, won't you, Tony?" Loki suggested, pulling Tony back to his body and humming contentedly. Natasha made a sound that could very well have been an '_aw_', but none of them dared question it lest they face her Russian-wrath.

The cliché of it all was ridiculous, but he and Loki literally danced till dawn (which was only about an hour, actually) while Barton successfully led a villainous corporate takeover of the game board, and Banner called in twice to see when he would be getting out of there. The atmosphere was mingled laziness and mirth, and nothing broke it until Loki's ballroom tune was interrupted very gracelessly by _California Girl._

Confusion only increased when Coulson pulled out his phone without a hitch, flicking it open and pressing it against his ear. "Yes, sir?" Silence on their end, and Tony tried to process that _Fury_ had been given a Katy Perry ringtone on Coulson's phone. "And what about Rogers?" There was a hint of hope, almost eagerness, in his tone, but his expression fell seconds later in a very un-Coulson-like pout. "I suppose so, sir. Yes, I'll tell them. And Banner's still waiting on that jet."

When he hung up they were all watching him expectantly- like cats waiting for treats, except for Loki who was seemingly debating whether or not to swoop down on his prey yet- and Coulson rolled his eyes very pointedly. "They've found him, a hundred miles out from Massachusetts. Suit up, we're flying out tonight, eight o clock sharp."

Tony grinned, nervousness spelling out excitement, and saw similar eagerness waiting in some degree on all of their expressions (sans Banner, who was just starting to look anxious). Loki, oddly enough, only abandoned the dancing position to pull Tony into a true hug, chest heaving with a sigh of relief.

**A/N: Ta-da? Sorry, this whole chapter feels like filler. Next one will be almost solely action, I promise. And sorry to say, but the Hulk probably won't make an appearance for awhile, if he does at all- their mission is meant to be covert, after all, and Bruce isn't going to join them without a big reason. Like Loki blowing up Manhattan.  
>Edit:To clarify, that was a reference to the Avengers, not what's happening next. Just so you guys know, Manhattan is safe.<br>**


	25. The Stark Household is not for Squirrels

**A/N: Well, after another delay, here you go at last! It's… probably not what anybody was expecting. I'm not too happy about it, but I hope you guys enjoy it all the same. **

**Sorry for the delay guys! This chapter gave me horrible writer's block. If you want to follow story progress I've got a twitter devoted to babbling about my fanfic, where I'll post news and whatnot about upcoming updates.:) Maybe random teasers, every now and then. It's KylieCUnderwood, if you guys are interested.**

**Also, 200 reviews. I don't deserve you guys- I love you all, and thank you so much for the support!**

SHIELD wouldn't let him off base (_just_ him, as Barton had reminded him on numerous chipper occasions) and Loki wouldn't go without him, so the two of them ended up in a surprisingly lush "guest room" to catch some rest, in order that they may better move after the Nazi hoard hiding in the New Hampshire forests. Which, of course, meant they stuck around the accommodations for a grand total of three and a half minutes while Loki worked his mojo with the cameras, giving them some nice illusions to watch, and teleported them both far enough outside of SHIELD that Tony could call Happy up and get them a ride back to their preferred choice of homestead.

Every single one of Tony's personality files, tests, or quizzes had labeled him as eccentric to the worst degree. He wanted a medal for it, but couldn't figure out how to make the words fit and still be legible from long distances.

"You two look like shit." Happy pointed out encouragingly once they were well on the road, and Tony stuck his tongue out as regally as he could.

"Not so great yourself, Hotrod. Your face get mauled by a cheese grater or what?"

"Nobody told me you'd gotten a cat." Happy's hand brushed the thin, angry red welts across his cheek, glaring at the bumper of the next car as if hitting it at full speed would somehow be the stress-relieving equivalent of running over Loki's cat. "That thing is evil."

"He's expecting a treat. Pepper refuses to catch him what he likes."

"_Catch?_ Did he say _catch_, Boss?"

"Yup. Loki likes to procure small animals for Fenrir's enjoyment." It was a little disturbing, actually, and Tony had been deceptively delighted at the sight of a squirrel in his home until the cat had pounced it. Loki said it was so Fenrir could grow up to be a proper hunter, not some tame thing, but Tony thought it was just creepy. Especially because their kitten was still a kitten- he didn't look like he'd ever grow beyond basketball size (roundness not included, despite a healthy supply of squirrels).

Loki nodded solemnly, and Happy grimaced and didn't talk much after that. Tony was grateful, but not because he wasn't up for discussing Fenrir's dietary habits- Loki was acting as if today were a normal day and tonight would be no different, humming absently and every now and then pulling Tony toward him for some light show of affection. No eagerness, no nervousness- it was like he'd forgotten they were going after Schmidt in less than twenty hours. Well, it was probably better that way, really. Tony wasn't exactly the "wait and worry" kind of guy, not unless a bottle of alcohol bigger than his head was included, and maybe some pizza and a few long hours in the workshop. All options (except maybe the pizza, if they didn't get mushroom) would be refused by Loki.

At least they were going home. Tony debated calling Pepper to have her meet them there, but he didn't want to see her looking at him aghast when he explained where they would be going that night. No doubt Happy would spill the beans, but he and Loki would be alone long enough for him to think for awhile and decide what to say and how to say it. Or, you know, maybe he'd just get mauled by the cat- that was, unfortunately, a far more likely possibility.

Fenrir came barreling at them like a little furry missile as soon as they'd opened the door, tiny paws thudding on the tile so quickly that the halls echoed with kitten-like thunder. Tony brought his hands up to protect his face, but Loki laughed like a little kid and bent down to catch the feline in his arms, rubbing his belly at ground level before standing up straight and letting Fenrir crawl over his shoulders. The cat's entire body rumbled from how hard he was purring, butting his head against the back of Loki's and tangling his hair together. Loki didn't seem to mind.

"I should have left him with a clone, it looks as though he wasn't paid enough attention while we were gone," Loki crooned, rubbing the bottom of Fenrir's chin with his index finger. "Poor boy."

"I think he just wants food, not love," Tony glared at the cat but was promptly ignored, which was a lot better than having his face scratched open.

"Nonsense, he's had food." Loki tsked, and Fenrir hissed as if in agreement. "I'll get you something to play with later, Fen, me and Tony are busy."

"We are?"

The cat hopped to the ground, looking affronted, and stalked off with his tail in the air. That thing could speak English, Tony was sure of it- and he'd prove it, one of these days, and Pepper would stop calling him paranoid and rolling her eyes whenever Fenrir walked into the room. Demon cat. "Yes, we are." Loki purred, as if the kitten wasn't enough, and grabbed Tony by the shirt collar for a _very_ suggestive kiss. "We ought to get our sleep before tonight, don't you agree?"

As it turned out yes, Tony agreed _very_ much and no, they didn't actually get that much sleep- unless you counted a liberal amount of sex, oral and otherwise, as rest- but the few hours spent unconscious, curled up in each other's arms, were all either of them ever really needed.

As rare as it was, Tony woke up first- some backwards part of his mind setting off an alarm ten minutes early- and despite knowing they should get an "early" start couldn't quite look away from Loki. Watching him in sleep was a guilty pleasure adopted from those early days of meeting, when Loki had spent the majority if his time unconscious and half-clothed in Tony's biggest guest-room. His hair was even longer than it had been then though just as messy in the mornings, which Loki _despised_ and would always repair as soon as possible once he realized it. Personally, Tony liked the way it splayed out, like ink had spilled down the pillow and over his face, shifting slightly because yes, ladies and gentleman, the god of mischief snored.

He was also adorably tired, and managed half a yawn in his sleep before curling up closer to Tony (and Jesus Christ, his grip was_ tight_, it was like cuddling an anaconda) and humming when he found him. It was the opposite of when they were awake, Loki burying his face against Tony's neck, shoulder, chest- always anything he could reach, like he was trying to hide there, and Tony did his best to pretend, in the morning, that he hadn't noticed.

Of course right now, cute and oddly sexy as Loki was being, Tony still couldn't tear his eyes away from the god's stomach. Bruises were still visible along the surface, like lacework, and the skin was hotter to the touch than he was used to. _Fucking hell, why'd you have to go and do a thing like that to yourself?_ He pried himself free of Loki's grasp with great difficulty, and watched the god whine and roll onto his back, grabbing the nearest pillow and cradling that to his chest instead. His stomach was exposed, the blankets barely covering his waist, and Tony bent to kiss the damaged area, knowing he couldn't make anything better. _Reckless. Idiot. _

Great, now he was starting to understand how Pepper felt whenever he ran off and got himself hurt. Seeing Loki injured, knowing it didn't have to happen, was like having the reactor torn out again. Even worse, knowing that in ten minutes they'd be teleporting back to the room they'd ditched and pretending to have been there the whole while, and then there'd be no more privacy before the war against a troop of _fucking Nazis._

"Is there something wrong?" Loki's voice was sleepy, but still concerned. Tony couldn't blame him- this wasn't exactly a normal position.

"Yes," He said, but elaborated no further even when Loki's staring had begun to burn a hole in the back of his head. "Ready to go?"

"Give me a moment." Loki sat up and (predictably) smoothed his hair down, frowning at Tony's concerned look. "What's so fascinating about my stomach?"

"I was figuring out if you were ticklish."

"If I was what?"

"It's a Midgardian thing, just making sure you hadn't caught it."

"I'm immune to mortal diseases, Tony."

"This one's special, it creeps up on all sorts. And there's no cure."

Loki laughed, but made no further comment. He stretched, catlike, and snapped his fingers to clothe them both fully. "I can get us all the way back to base, if you'd rather not wait for Happy."

"Sounds good, just don't exhaust yourself. Big day. Er… night. It's like nine o clock out where we're going."

"Do not worry," Loki chuckled, leaning forward to kiss Tony on the nose-right, that wasn't degrading at all- and take him by the wrists. Something about having a connection to the heart seemed to make it easier for Loki to work his magic on others, so Tony didn't complain and let himself be whisked away by the magic elevator-tube-_thing_ sensation that he disliked so much.

SHIELD's room really wasn't that bad, to be honest, but Tony groaned in annoyance and fell onto the bed all the same as if it were the worst possible place to be. The clock told them they had about two minutes before Fury or Natasha came pounding on the door, telling them it was time to suit up (in Tony's case) and be off. "You're sure you're ready, right?"

"Yes, of course I am. It's a superficial wound you know, darling, it looks much worse than it is," Loki laughed, patting him on the back but not sitting beside him. When Tony turned over to get a look, the god was running his finger over the edge of a dagger that couldn't have been there minutes before, a light glow honing the blade wherever it was too dull. "I will be using my magic more than my body, anyway."

"Well Schmidt's not going to be shooting at your magic."

"Schmidt will be shooting at an impenetrable magical shield, so I'm not exactly concerned. I'm more worried about you- he thinks you're dead, and that suit isn't what I would call subtle. You can't do recon if it will give you away."

"Recon? We're flying in to kill the guy, that's not exactly recon. I don't care if he sees me if he's going to be dead right afterward."

"Assuming the weapon is on base. I have no intentions of letting SHIELD's men capture Schmidt or kill him themselves- I want them dealing with the goons, and the two of us will head after him when he flees. As he undoubtedly will, toward wherever he has his equipment actually housed, waiting for the tesseract. Men like him are too smart to keep all their assets in one place," Loki explained as he let the knife disappear with a soft _click_ like metal against metal.

Tony raised an eyebrow, sitting up but not standing. "You crazy? You were the one who threw a fit last time he got away. What are you going to do if he gets away again, kill Coulson in a fit?"

Loki narrowed his eyes, and for a second Tony was terrified that he would say yes, that was exactly what he had in mind. But he shut his eyes, and when he opened them they were brighter than before, in a safer way. "I have a plan. He will not expect me, or you, if he believes us both dead- so keep your life hidden from him, Tony, please. Then we can destroy Schmidt, and the weapon, in one move."

"So you're going to fake your death? How do you plan to do that?"

"I always have a plan, Tony," Loki turned and planted a placating kiss to drink up Tony's protests before he could make them, tongue rolling over the other's lips and drawing an anticipatory moan. "Just trust me."

"See, god of mischief and trust are mutually exclusive."

"Do you trust me, though?"

"With my life, but not with yours," _Or anyone else's._ Tony wrapped his arms around Loki's neck to deepen the kiss and used that leverage to heft himself more easily to his feet. "I want to know the plan."

Loki sighed against his lips, pulling away to look down at him properly. "I will tell you my intentions before I act on them, is that good enough?"

"I'm not a very patient person."

"Of course not, can't have you showing any virtues now can we? I _will_ tell you, Tony, but not now. Besides, I do believe we have a guest."

Right on time, a SHIELD agent knocked on the door, loudly and unkindly- clearly he expected them to be asleep, or too busy to hear him. Glad their reputation preceded them, here. Tony opened the door to find a bored-looking goon, nobody he knew by name, tapping his foot impatiently and only sighing when he saw them ready to go. "Iron Man. I'm guessing you're actually ready to go on time, for once?"

"Have I offended you personally at some point in the past? I hope so, if not I'd better get right to that. Come on, Loki babe, the super-special boy band is waiting."

VVV

Banner had gone home at some point while they were off, but Loki was far less surprised about this than was Tony, who actually looked a little disappointed. The others, however, were all gathered in the helicarrier that they would be travelling in, meaning they were the late two to the bunch. Ah, well, more's the pity for them- Loki had no intentions of rushing himself just because they were all so obsessed with their own protocol.

The worst thing about the trip wasn't the length of it (only an hour, but Loki was far too impatient to be dealing with it), or the company, but the suit. Tony was trapped in his armor for the entirety of their trip, and Loki despised that metal case- he couldn't feel Tony through it, couldn't see his eyes or search for the heat of a heartbeat. And… well no, the company was not all that nice, either- they all had mission statements that they were meant to take seriously, and the others did not think kindly of the way neither Tony nor Loki bothered to even read them.

"I mean, come on dude- at least look the thing. Hell, I'm probably not going to listen but at least _fake it._ What happens if you wing your orders, and accidentally do what you were supposed to do in the first place? That'd suck," Barton warned, waving his finger and clicking his tongue in disapproval.

Coulson reached over, nonchalantly reviewing the team's orders as a whole, and smacked the other man lightly on the side of the head. "Don't encourage him, Barton. This is a mission, not a bad comedy club- you can't go out their without some idea what you'll be doing, you two."

"Oh, and you're expecting the enemy to comply to your mission statement, are you? No thank you, I will trust my own mind," Loki retorted dryly. "How far out are we? Schmidt will notice if we land any closer than two miles, one if we're lucky."

"Ship's going down ten out, you're teleporting us in. All in the mission statement, if you'd just-"

"One at a time, then. I can't bring you all at once," Loki cut in simply, tossing the paper over his shoulder and raising an eyebrow at the frustrated look on Coulson's face.

"'Tasha's tiny, she and Barton should barely count as one person," Tony suggested, voice metallic and crackling in the suit. "I'm sticking on crowd control- the suit can pick up anybody and anything that comes out of that place. Weapons, goons, whatever they are. And, unlike the assassin twins over there, I can pick out what's actually being transported."

"The _assassin goons_ are going to be shooting things _inside_ the building, so it doesn't matter anyway," Romanoff retorted, holstering the guns she had earlier been inspecting.

Tony grinned behind the suit, and she responded with a mocking smile of her own- it was odd, really, how none of them had any trouble guessing what expression he was wearing. Loki hated it, that everyone but Barton seemed to know what he would have preferred to be private knowledge. He didn't _want_ any of them to know a damned thing about Tony, but there was nothing he could do about it here. Coulson, he despised- but Barton seemed fine enough, and Romanoff he even respected on some minor level. He could deal with working with them for awhile. Loki was smart, he knew his own mind, he knew when he was angry at every breathing thing rather than any individual being, and for these last few days he'd felt nothing but hatred toward everything even associated with SHIELD.

And that wasn't _going away_, so he only grit his teeth and turned away from the whole of them, only responding at all to that metallic hand that _wasn't_ Tony's, but all he could get at the moment. They transferred to some (pointless) smaller aircraft, flew another ten minutes, and landed on the ground just outside some city, which was apparently loaded with enough interference that Hydra wouldn't detect them from within the underdeveloped base they had managed to set up over the past few days. And then Loki had to suffer through grabbing them, one by one, and expending magic he really could not be wasting on taking them in to some of the very convenient cover New Hampshire had to offer. The state seemed to be perpetually green all around, and more often than once Loki startled a moose in his movements, which made the conditions ideal for both Schmidt, and them.

At least there was one thing to be looking forward to, and when they were finally all gathered and waiting Loki was able to act on it. "Well, who's first then?" He wondered brightly, grinning with his teeth at each of them in turn.

"First for wh- Oh, god, no, the Satanic ritual. No, no, not doing it." Barton had a slightly disturbing habit of hiding in rafters and the like- right now he was perched in a tree, pulling up a gathering of leaves to hide behind.

Loki rolled his eyes, resisting the temptation to force him down through magic. "Would you rather face Hydra's guns, then? One drop of blood is hardly going to disturb you for life, it merely allows me to course my magic through your bodies as well as mine."

"Meaning if you cast even one spell, you can affect all of us at once," Coulson clarified, stepping forward so that he stood just beneath Barton's perch.

"Yes, that's the purpose. I won't have to expend the energy or the concentration on affecting each of you individually," Loki spoke quickly, but not so much that it seemed unusual in any particular way. The quicker they did this, the less time these fools would have to worry over the possibilities such a ritual could offer- most of which they wouldn't agree with, really, but were perfectly useful to Loki.

The agent, however, already had an eyebrow raised, and Romanoff was beginning to mirror his distrust. "Meaning you could kill any of us at any point, without even wasting your energy on it."

Loki narrowed his eyes slightly, running his tongue over his teeth in absent thought. Yes, he had been counting on such a handy little side-effect as that, but it would do no good to admit to such. "Of course not. I'll prepare the shield spell now, I cannot merely perform magic from a distance."

"You know what, I don't think I want to take that chance," Romanoff cut in. "How does this work, you cast a spell through the ritual and it affects everyone, not individuals?"

"Of course, I can't merely work person by person, that would defeat the purpose," Loki sneered, which was the unfortunate truth. Unfortunately, that was all he could rely on here- none of them liked him enough for his mellifluous tendencies to do him much good.

"Fine. Then Stark, you're doing this too. As a safe-guard, I'm sure you understand," Coulson smiled a little too sweetly to even be sarcastic, instead looking as if he hoped dearly to be punched across the face.

Loki snarled and drew up straighter, which made Barton shuffle back and glare in turn while Romanoff only shook her head and sighed. "We're not threatening him, Laufeyson. We're just being careful," She elaborated quickly.

They shared a harsh look for a few moments, and eventually Loki nodded, gritting his teeth as unobtrusively as possible. Sedition toward SHIELD would have to wait for a better opportunity, it seemed. "I'm not- Tony has his suit, I only have to cast a spell over the armor. It's easier to protect inorganic material."

"It's fine, babe, I trust you," Tony chirped before any more protest could be made, waving his hand absently with a soft sort of creaking sound. That damned _suit_… "Bring on the blood- wow, that actually sounds disgusting."

"_No._ You do not get to set conditions on my aid, agent Coulson- you can accept the risk of working with me, or you can face Hydra's weaponry unaided. I assure you, it makes no difference to me," His breath was little more than a snarl, but it was certainly audible enough.

There was a long space of time where none of them did anything but watch each other, and it seemed as if nobody cared to speak either way. Then Barton hopped down from his perch and whispered in Coulson's ear, shrugging when the agent rolled his eyes at whatever he had to say. "That's an awful idea, but awful's the best we've got. Fine, Laufeyson, get on with it."

Loki was tempted to just say no and get on with it, but he summoned a knife and slashed his thumb all the same. There was a bit of squeamishness all around (though Romanoff was disturbingly unbothered) but within the space of five minutes everyone's body or armor was protected, and the actual plans were ready to begin. Romanoff was heading in first, with Barton by her side in a theoretical sense (seeing as he would be keeping to the shadows, leaving the woman to run straight in- how _heroic_) while Coulson monitored their situation. Once it was safe, he and Loki would be following- while Tony flew around, watching for soldiers and equipment being transferred out of the building.

Once the agents were on their way, and Coulson crouched low to communicate with them through some earpiece, Loki leaned back against the nearest tree and slid to the ground, eyes shut tight. Tony was watching him with assiduous care, but he did his best to ignore him- until the man bent beside him and clamped a metal hand on his shoulder. "What's up, babe? You've been in a pretty bad mood for the last few days."

"I don't want to be here. I want to go back home," Loki snapped, groaning afterward and shaking his head with a bit of a growl. "No, I want to kill Schmidt, but I don't want to be working with SHIELD to do it. And I want to get back home."

"We will babe, I promise. To my home, anyway, unless you mean, you know, Asgard. I can't really go there," Tony shrugged and pulled him closer, though Loki didn't yet open his eyes.

"Asgard is not home," Loki retorted. "I want to go to _our_ home, _just_ our home. No SHIELD there, no Pepper."

"Pepper doesn't live there ya know, and SHIELD definitely doesn't," That damned suit- his voice sounded wrong, and Loki refused to say another word in response. After a few minutes he got the point and removed the helmet, setting it beside where they sat. "But yeah, we'll be alone for awhile if you want, I can do that."

Yes, he wanted that- and he was scared that he wouldn't have it. That the distrust he was getting from this group would begin to infect Tony, or that somebody like Selvig would tell him what they thought Loki would become _after_ he was gone. And even if they didn't- he was scared that Tony would know what sort of person he was when they found Schmidt, because Loki wasn't going to hold back- he was going to tear the man apart and _enjoy _it. Scared that Tony would realize who he had rescued that day all those months back, and wish he'd just left him there.

"I'll get you to Asgard one way or another," Loki decided, lifting his head but not looking at Tony in the eye, grinding his teeth in anger or worry. "You would like it- one way, I'll make sure you see it."

"We'd have to get married for that, I think," Tony teased, and then only did Loki turn to him, a wry smile on his lips. "Or you could rob some apples, but that seems a bit risky."

"Idunn's apples are a metaphorical concept, not the actual source of our longevity. They do taste very good, however."

"Okay, whatever, point being humans can't get into magic god-land."

"Like I said, I'll find a way," Loki relaxed into a smile and leaned forward to kiss Tony, an almost soft movement that cut off quickly enough- Coulson, after all, was just feet away. "Those communication devices work both ways?"

"'Course. It's easier to hear what's going on then to respond though- hard not to find the ear piece, but the mic's pretty easy to hide if you get caught. Or decide to fake your death, which you still haven't explained to me by the way."

"It's simple enough- Schmidt has to think he's killed me, then he'll flee with that weapon- leaving us free to go after him and deal with him ourselves. SHIELD won't have a say in the matter." It was better than fighting him here, where the organization could kill Schmidt or knock him out from afar before Loki could play his own hand. No, he wanted no more of their interference.

Tony was looking uncertain, and Loki could only offer an unreadable smile to reassure him. No, he wasn't going to be all too happy with the simplest solution Loki had arrived at, but he would deal with it. Shame, though, that he'd be able to hear it all once Coulson fit him up with a mic. He'd just rip the equipment off, but he was going to need a way to speak with them once he was well and done in there.

Before long Coulson shot to his feet- a signal that didn't need the added beckoning of his hand before Loki was at his side, Tony preparing his suit behind them. "Barton and Romanoff have picked off the main guard. We have eight minutes to get in there before shift changes and the alarm goes off- less if somebody walks down the wrong hallway."

"Easy enough. Have they found Schmidt?" Not yet, they couldn't come by the man until Loki had started on his plan- he wasn't risking this all with improvisation.

"No, they're as of yet undetected and making their way through the building in search of Stark's weapon."

Perfect. "Then we'd better follow, before they take all the fun. Tony, I'll let you know when I've cut off their outdoor surveillance."

Tony gave a two-fingered salute off the forehead of his helmet, and Loki was sure he was winking behind that mask. He wanted to smile in turn, but Coulson was there so he only nodded and turned to the agent, ready to set off.

VVV

They teleported- of course they did, Loki couldn't just walk anywhere these days, could he?- out of sight before Tony could make any parting comments, but he wasn't exactly broken up about it. Far as he was concerned, taking care to say something cutesy in case you never saw someone again usually confirmed that you never saw them again- it was like god liked to write out life with all the favorite soap opera clichés shoved in where least convenient.

So no, Tony really wasn't worried about the simplistic parting, but he _was_ worried about Loki's less than ideal temper. Something was off about him, and Tony didn't doubt for a second that he had one crazed Nazi to thank for all of it. The sooner they got Schmidt out of the way the better, though he didn't think SHIELD would be too happy with how Loki was going to deal with that. Actually, neither was Tony, but what was he supposed to do about that? Loki was going to snap if he didn't vent his anger, and the collateral damage from that was going to be a lot worse than letting him beat the hell out of a supervillain.

"_Testing, testing- how's it going out there, robot boy?"_

"Don't you have a job to pretend to be doing, Barton?" Tony replied lightly, nonetheless reassured that the team-wide communication was up and running. "All right, let's hear it- how're things going in there?"

"_Well enough. We're looking for our weapon now, but I'm doubting it's here. They have some interesting technology however."_

"_Don't touch any of it, Laufeyson. SHIELD's cleaning this place out once we've done our job- top priority for you is finding out where the tesseract and that weapon ended up."_

"_Oh now, you're no fun."_

But according to Loki, none of what they came by was half as dangerous as the weapon Schmidt had hold of _off_ base. "Nobody's taken anything out of there yet. What happened to those alarms? Your eight minutes are way up."

"_Oh, they know we're here all right, they just don't want us to know they know. They still don't know where we are in the building, Clint and Loki've been wiping out the cameras,"_ Natasha explained in a whisper that Tony had to strain to hear, even with the amplified sounds through the comm. _"Clint, get the left."_

"_Come on, that's just easy. Why do these guys always go in pairs?"_ The archer's whining was only slightly ruined by a grunt of pain and series of muffled thumps that marked the assassin trio working their way through another set of very unfortunate hydra goons. _"All right, Stark, we're across from computer room one. What do we need to do?"_

"Break in, for one thing. If you're lucky those guys'll have a key card, if not it's up to Natasha. Those locks don't give off a remote signal for me to tap into," Unfortunate, but not unmanageable. "Then find a way to get that USB into whatever computer in there looks most important, and make damn sure you aren't caught at it because that thing's gonna take time to work."

Mostly because it was SHIELD design and not his own, but even so the device was a pretty useful bit of tech. Given five minutes it would rip out all the information in that computer that had any relevance to Schmidt, and send it straight to Tony for review. _"Will do. What's up on your end?"_

"Absolutely nothing. I've got sensors running non-stop, but there's nothing coming in or out- even underground. There's nothing in that building that Schmidt's worried about you taking, or it'd be long gone by now."

"_Or else he's just highly confident that he will defeat us. But no, I do not think that's the case- he never brought our weapon here, it's waiting for him wherever he plans to actually use it. Schmidt is here, though, he's expecting us."_

"_Okay, what? You mean we just showed up for a meeting with a crazy Nazi? What, does he _want _us to get a look at his army?"_

"_This isn't his army. Not all of it- We just walked into a decoy, the real army is off somewhere else, waiting for Schmidt to summon his god,"_ Coulson sighed with much less anger than was appropriate for the situation.

"And you know this how?" Tony demanded, already firing up his repulsors and turning to aim them at what he could see of the building, as if he expected bombs to start going off.

"_Because Schmidt's just told us. Don't worry though, Director, we'll get out fine."_

Director? Clint started to snap on the other end, but a muffled grunt told Tony that Natasha had covered his mouth, realizing what Loki meant a moment before he did. Schmidt thought Loki was the head of the break-in again, probably believed he and Coulson were there for their individual sources of revenge. A small team only, looking for the tesseract- and Tony had the bad feeling that Loki had let himself be found in the hopes that he would believe that.

Himself, and Coulson.

"Get out of there, Loki. You hear me? He's not part of this."

"_Understood, not a word. Really, you think I would tell him anything?"_

"Loki!"

"_Pardon, I do believe Schmidt would rather we do without these things. Sorry, I'll speak to you later."_

Loki's voice was chipper, but no more distant- he was handing off the earphone but not the mic, and Schmidt wouldn't know there was a difference. A crumbling snap told Tony it had been destroyed, and though Coulson was opting for silence now, he could hear the rustle as his tech was passed on too. No more warnings, then, but that also meant Schmidt couldn't overhear anything they said.

"_The fuck is going on? Schmidt was _on_ to us?"_

"_Apparently. Or at least on to them- Stark, we're bailing out. If we invade the computer he'll know we're here, and I doubt anything in there is genuine anyway."_

"Yeah, out. Fast. I'm going in there, don't want you to get caught beca-"

"_Are you nuts? No, you stay right where you are, Laufeyson can handle himself."_

"No, he can't, you know how he is with Schmidt. And what if Couls- _oh my fucking god!"_

He was tuned in to Natasha and Clint at the moment, so he must have missed something- that was the only explanation Tony could imagine for Coulson suddenly standing _two fucking feet away._ They both jumped, but Coulson recovered more quickly and cursed, hand flying to where his earpiece was hidden- or should have been. "Damn, Laufeyson… Who's got a reason why Stark's boyfriend decided to stay behind?"

Stay behind. Loki wasn't there. Tony turned, the suit saving him from a whipped neck, and looked back the other way, realizing that Coulson was alone in his reappearance. Thank god the suit had its own oxygen flow, he would have forgotten how to breathe otherwise. Loki, alone with Schmidt-

Planning to fake his death.

"Babe?" The earpiece was gone, there was no point in it, but Tony struggled out the world all the same. "This is a bad idea, Loki, come on."

"_Stark, what's going on? What are you talking about?"_

"Coulson's here, but Loki's not," Tony snapped. "JARVIS, reconnect me to Loki, right now."

"_Sir, Mr. Laufeyson's connection has been lost. Would you like to hear the transmission from his end, or shall I cut-"_

"No, do it, I- Yeah, connect. Coulson, tell those two to get out here now, doesn't matter if they can't hear you," Tony demanded, and the man could apparently tell how panicked he was that he merely nodded and turned off to converse. "Play the feed."

"_So tell me, Schmidt? What was the point of all this? I've already flattered myself plenty, I know you wanted to catch me here. What is it you want?"_

"_For someone so smart you certainly are a fool, Mr. Lauson. You have just displayed what you have that could readily be of use to me."_

"_Magic, yes. You don't really think you would ever be able to use it, do you? Humans can't understand these things."_ No, Loki, shut up, don't _do_ this.

Schmidt laughed, the sound echoing alongside two sets of footsteps. Clearly they were going somewhere, but where? _"Oh, but I intend to find out. You are here to show me."_

"_Oh, see, that's not going to happen. Nice handcuffs I must say, very lovely, but they can't hold my magic down for long enough."_ Or at all- Tony had asked once, it was physically impossible to restrain Loki's magic without a magic spell of your own to do it. He was letting Schmidt think he'd caught him, pretending to be at his mercy. Thank god for the suit- Coulson was watching him now, and he didn't want to imagine what sort of expression he was wearing beneath the helmet. _"I'll be gone without a word soon."_

"_You underestimate me, magician. I need not perform your spells, I need only know the limits of a godling's body. Do not look so surprised- I have heard of your tales, Liesmith. Such a shame I have only a Jotun to work with, but you will be close enough to the gods for my purpose."_ A sharp intake of breath was the only sign that Loki was at all concerned by this new development, but Tony thought he might have passed out if not for the aid of the suit. _"I need their compliance, not their life- I must know my limits, after all."_

No, no no no- Tony knew Clint and Natasha could hear this, but he ignored their attempts to get through and talk to him. Loki was such a fucking _idiot._ "Loki, get out of there, right now."

But yeah, he couldn't hear. Loki's voice wavered, but Tony could recognize that it was a false fear- though he doubted Schmidt was so aware. One set of footsteps stopped, and Loki made a huff of surprise- he must have been jabbed in the back, armed guards following them? _"I will not allow it- you cannot hold me here."_

"_Of course I can. Come come, Trickster, you are almost a god, after all. Perhaps your faithful magic will protect you. Enjoy the view, for now."_

There was a loud rustle of sound on both ends- the assassins were returning through the trees, and Tony could imagine a bag being shoved over his boyfriend's head. He cringed, shivering at the startled sound of rage Loki was making- it was fake, as was the grunt of pain as he was no doubt jabbed again, but it still _hurt._ _Go on, Loki. Get out, please get out of there. _Tony forcd his eyes shut and slammed his fist into the nearest tree- the bark cracked, and the trunk earned a new hole in it, but thankfully didn't topple.

"_Tony?"_ He tensed, realizing the bag was allowing Loki to speak, but barely loud enough for him to hear even through the communication system. _"I'm so sorry. I'm fine, just remember that."_

Damn it. Tony started to croak out a response but remembered there was no point. Loki wasn't going to hear him until he got out of there- which he would, yeah? Definitely. _"I'm sorry."_

Tony groaned and swallowed roughly, resisting the urge to just scream in frustration. When he opened his eyes three pairs of eyes were fixed on him, calculating and uncertain.

**A/N: Hope you guys liked it! Sorry if it was… jumbled or nonsensical. The next chapter is going to get a little confusing, since it will switch very quickly from PoV to PoV without the usual VVV breaks, to keep things smooth. And, as I think you can guess, it'll be full of violence. **


	26. Let it Fall

**A/N:Multiple warnings. Until tomorrow afternoon this chapter is unedited, since it's late and I've already put off uploading long enough. Hopefully it's moderately logical and in-character. **

**Furthermore- lots of violence in this chapter, and lots of graphic descriptions for said violence. If you're not comfortable with that sort of thing, be prepared to skim at parts.**

**Back in school and done with performing****_ Merchant of Venice, _****so updates should pick up again. Unendingly sorry about the delay!D: **

"He's a god, he'll be ready for this. He's got to have a plan or something, right?" Barton demanded. "If Schmidt does find some way to make a god do what he wants-"

"Not now, Clint," Natasha warned with a rough shake of her head. "Laufeyson must have planned this for some reason. Stark, what could he possibly have in mind?"

_He wants Schmidt to go after you guys, so he and I can go after him. Because he thinks we're both dead-or he will._ "No idea. Coulson, what happened? How the hell did you two get caught?" Tony turned toward the agent, eyes narrowed but invisibly so because of the helmet.

"Laufeyson's defenses. Schmidt was tracking his spellwork somehow, and those things may stop bullets but they're a dead giveaway when you're around to the god of mischief," Coulson replied with a little more pleasantness than was even vaguely appropriate. "If Schmidt's army isn't here then neither is the tesseract. The site nearby's not the one he'll be using- I'll get another recon team out looking for the actual location. You three come with me so we can take out Skull before he slips off again, and feel free to spread the love to his goon squad. It's bad for henchmen's self-esteem for them to be ignored."

"No. If Loki's in there, then he's got a plan- remember the last time you interrupted him? Schmidt got off, and you landed in the hospital," Tony could feel his voice tighten as he spoke. He wanted to just go on in and start blowing the hell out of everyone and everything related to Hydra, but Loki would never forgive him for it. He must have had some reason for not just killing Schmidt right there, right?

Nothing Tony could think of, except perhaps the tesseract. He had a feeling that Loki wasn't too happy with that being left in mortal hands, and no doubt he wanted it for himself. Why? To ensure Thor couldn't come on down? World domination? Because he was _bored_? It wasn't fair, really, wasn't Tony supposed to be the spontaneous one in the relationship?

_"Well, Schmidt, now we're all alone… shall we travel the gossip vines? Maybe play truth or dare? I'll start with truth-what is the real purpose of this place? You wouldn't waste time on a decoy, you _want_ SHIELD knowing where you are,"_ It was as if Loki could read their minds- he must have known they would debate what Coulson had suggested, and was doing his best to create a reason not to before anyone had the chance. "_At least tell me that. I can't stand not knowing things, and who would I tell?"_

_"I would be a fool to tell you, liesmith. Do you really think so highly of your words?"_

There weren't any footsteps, they must have stopped- by a door, an elevator? One or the other. _"You're playing the game wrong, you know. Now what, hoping to throw them off, or knowing you'll divide their forces? Or are you protecting the tesseract?"_

_"SHIELD will know my reasons soon enough. Regretfully, I do not think you will be here to learn them yourself."_

Tony couldn't remember hating somebody so strongly in a long, long time. Forget the lecture he'd given Loki about personal vendettas- he was going to get a few good punches in for this, but he'd happily give up any moment of revenge if Loki would just get the hell _out_ so there was no need for it. Unfortunately, as Loki often was, the god was far more focused on his own voice than the actual problem at hand. It would have been so much less annoying if Tony hadn't known he was exactly the same way.

_"Not the tesseract then. Something else? Hm… tell me, where has Justin Hammer been lately?"_ Loki hummed.

Judging by Loki's barking laugh Schmidt had reacted as strongly (well, strongly for Schmidt anyway) as they had in the clearing. Coulson was on his phone in about five seconds, and Tony figured Natasha was dragging Barton off for discussion but didn't bother to check, too busy demanding JARVIS call up a search for their missing "engineer". They'd known he was gone, off hiding like a rat, but there hadn't been a sign of him in even the base. And Schmidt's silence meant he didn't know where he'd gone, either. No doubt he wasn't the main reason for whatever Schmidt was up to with the phony hideout, but it was enough to distract SHIELD while Loki played.

"Patch me to Rhodey, let's get the War Machine on this," Tony instructed, wishing his words could drown out the other end of the earpiece. But even JARVIS' tiny voice couldn't quiet the sharp gasp of pain that was both achingly familiar and, unfortunately, undeniably genuine. Whatever Schmidt had done in response to Loki's laughter had caused the god real pain, not just acting- Tony was going to put red faces on all of his target dummies as soon as he got home. "Fucking- Rhodey, you there?"

_"Not if that 'fucking' was aimed towards me. What do you need?"_ Good old Rhodey, right to the point.

"Hammer's on the run from Schmidt, not us. Get out there in War Machine, find out why."

Loki's breathing was heavy, which explained the pain. Somehow Schmidt had known to go for his stomach, or was that just a lucky guess? Rhodey started speaking at the same time, but Loki's voice was closer and more important. _"Is there a no laughing rule in effect? No wonder you always look so upset, what a sorry sort of life."_

_"I hardly think you would speak of sorry lives, Laufeyson."_

_"Tony?"_ Ah, right, focus- two things at once, but Tony was still straining for any indication that Schmidt had hit Loki again.

"Listening, go on."

_"Something _is_ up, what's wrong? Don't lie to me, Tony."_

Where to start? "No time right now. Just do it, okay?"

_"I don't like this."_ Not a "no", which meant Tony could leave Hammer to Rhodey. And SHIELD.

Meanwhile he could focus on…. Doing absolutely nothing, except listening to the Hell Schmidt put Loki through.

VVV

They could hear him, he was sure of it, though Loki had no way of listening to his so-called teammates' reactions. It was unfortunate that he needed SHIELD to hear him, or he'd have simply allowed Schmidt to find the other communication piece. And yet there were benefits, all the same, to Tony listening in, so he did nothing to prevent him from hearing.

So he didn't bother to cut the communication until he might need it, instead letting each word and breath flow through. He, of course, knew nothing about the conversation with Rhodes, merely assuming that Tony was hanging on every word (fortunately, or perhaps not, he was correct). "You want them to find him for you. They'll be looking for your original base, and he's their best lead- you're hoping they'll put effort into searching for your runaway without knowing that you've lost him too. Clever."

Schmidt was probably glaring at him- it really was hard to tell, seeing as his head had been shoved under the cover of a thick black cloth. Then again, the man wore a perpetual scowl, so it was certainly the most likely possibility. "Why so curious, godling? Your attention could be best spent elsewhere."

Really, what a fool. He believed his plan to be working, so as far as he knew all Loki had to think about was how painfully he was going to die- or be brought near death. He should have thought the change in conversation to be practically normal, why would he choose to dwell on a thing like that? "Oh, I'm curious about everything. It's in my nature you see, or did your books not tell you that?" Wretched stories. How was it these mortals knew more of his life than he had?

"The stories also indicated you were intelligent, and yet you have so far given no evidence that I should believe as much," Schmidt "cleverly" responded, no doubt proud of himself for coming up with such an insult. Loki rolled his eyes for nobody's sake but his own, head still covered as it was, and promptly tripped on the ledge of a stair. With his hands untied, vision free, and body _not _under the restraint of two guards at the shoulders he would have managed easily. Instead he stumbled, crashing painfully to his knees against the end of a step and not quite balancing himself enough to prevent his body from following.

His shoulder caught the brunt of it, and he kept his head from taking even a glancing blow, but still his pride hurt worse than anything else the landing had damaged. The guards had him by the shoulders again in moments (and took no mind of his bruises, either) and he was lifted unkindly to his feet. Loki let himself be as close to dead weight as he thought them capable of lifting, and despite the pain in his knees took up step again without pause. "Where were we? Ah, yes. If I were not intelligent, "Herr" Schmidt, you would not have wasted your time on hiring me."

"I hired Justin Hammer, did I not?"

"For the attention you knew he would draw, nothing more. And let's not forget that you, the self-claimed genius _worthy_ of the gods, couldn't even keep track of a fool like him."

"You are very certain of your assumptions." Gods, when was this walk going to be over? Schmidt really ought to set up his dungeons or labs or what-have-you somewhere more easily accessible, Loki was beginning to grow bored. Maybe the long walk was intended to build up tension, leave the "victim" quaking in fear. Oh, please.

"I tend to be." His legs weren't supporting him so well as they ought to have been. As if he hadn't anticipated enough trouble, now he was going to have to deal with swollen knees of all things. They should have warned him about those stairs. What if he _had_ hit his head? He would be too dizzy to torture, no fun whatsoever.

Schmidt didn't bother replying to him. Perhaps he was busy, but Loki had the distinct feeling that he was simply being ignored. Well, all the same. He hoped Tony hadn't heard too much of that fall, but knew there was no chance of him being left completely oblivious. At least he wouldn't suspect that it had actually done any harm, Loki kept the conversation, his voice, well under control enough to avoid letting that through.

Ah, there, an abrupt halt and curt order in German for him to halt. Without the all-tongue he wouldn't have understood a word, but Loki supposed the guards weren't intelligent enough to realize that there was no use in throwing intimidating words against a language barrier. Besides, the message was clear enough. He wondered if they were going to force him to his knees, or drag him inside and tie him down to some contraption. If Schmidt wanted just pain it would probaly be the former- but he was a scientific man, couldn't pass up a chance to study a god's body. So he'd likely be strapped to a table of some sort, new cuffs to replace the ones they really ought to have removed by now.

Loki expected brutality of some sort, but he was still surprised when his body was shoved roughly forward, staggering a second before he collided around the middle with something hard, and almost sharp enough that he was sure skin would have torn if not for the protection of his shirt. The blow was enough to steal his breath away, but his gasps as he hit the floor would be audible all the same. Unfortunate, but no doubt far from the worst Tony would have to hear.

He meant to shake off any pain he received initially, but he had either been misfortunate or the gaurds very meticulous. Internal bleeding rarely meant much other than an ache, but Loki could almost feel the splitting vessels in his stomach, new bruises preparing to form over those he had just made for himself. His groan was almost involuntarily, and he curled on the floor with a bit of shaking that he managed to quiet after just a moment. Not the best start he could have hoped for, really.

The mask was pulled off (At last, did they really think there was any point in that thing?), but Loki kept his eyes shut tight in a slightly exaggerated show of pain. Schmidt needn't think him weak, but he didn't know how bad the injuries to his stomach were- Loki could play that as much as he wanted, make it seem like Schmidt's job was already half done for him. It would make this easier, anyway.

He sensed somebody moving nearer, and let his eyes flutter open a second before he was hauled to a standing position. Standing being a relative term, really, since his legs and torso were mostly limp, letting the guards do the work as they dragged him further forward. There was a table, as Loki had expected, and judging by the brutal make of the thing he assumed it was that which he'd slammed into. Schmidt had his back turned, overdramatically busy with something at the counter (no doubt Loki was meant to shudder in fear at the ominous display), so there was no chance for more failed conversation as the guards forced him to lie atop the cold metal. This thing was going to do horrors for his back.

They freed his hands, blood rushing back to stiff and cold hands, but didn't let his arms relax. He was forced halfway to a sitting position, one guard keeping him still with a gun and heavy hand while the other removed his shirt in a very uncaring sort of way. He'd have taunted them, asked how they liked the view, if he hadn't known he was meant to be caught in throws of agony and fear. Luckily Loki could choose to feign dizziness rather than terror, shutting his eyes halfway as if the pain in his stomach was still unbearable (bad, certainly, agonizing even- but not crippling) as he was shoved unkindly onto his back, and the restraints 'round his wrists were replaced by a pair attached to the table, forcing his hands to wait by his sides. His ankles too were bound, and he was vaguely surprised when they stopped there and stomped off imperiously to wait by the door. No chest restraints, none for the torso? He could have broken out almost easily.

No gag, either. If Schmidt wasn't careful his victims would bite their tongues off- or, more likely, the scientist knew he could avoid such precautions with Loki. He wasn't interrogating him, so unless he had some questions he was seemingly just hoping to hear Loki's pain. How uncouth. The man started to turn around, and the god schooled his features into the perfect image of a struggle against showing pain he could easily have hidden. Schmidt seemed to expect as much, because he only dismissed the guards and stepped forward without a hint of suspicion.

The door shut with volume to rival cannon-fire, but there was no echo. Sound proof walls, not a good sign. Loki made a show of forcing his eyes open, but on a mask of indifference with the perfect amount of imperfections for Schmidt to keep interest, and waited.

VVV

The helmet had long since been discarded. Tony didn't really want to lose that bit of protection, and he _definitely_ didn't want SHIELD's men (and lady) being given a free audience to his expressions, but he found it easier to listen to Loki when the sound wasn't echoing through the shallow gaps between his skin and metal. It was clear enough to them all that Loki was up to something, and Barton had said more than once that Schmidt had to have the world's thickest head not to notice, so Coulson had of course dictated that they had to wait for more details before taking personal action.

All of them. Waiting here, for Loki to finish with Schmidt. Which meant Tony would have their company throughout the entire god-damned thing.

"If that helicarrier doesn't take off soon Schmidt's men'll sweep the forests before you can notch an arrow," Tony insisted, not for the first time, in the face of their stubbornness. "He thinks I'm dead, remember? He'll want some guarantee that Coulson's gone at least."

Come on, wasn't he supposed to be good at reading people? The agent was unfairly good at his job, he should have at least realized how badly Tony wanted him _gone_. The others too, but he didn't really know or care what they thought. He knew Coulson. He maybe even liked the arrogant bastard. So he didn't want him hearing a damned word of all this, and he definitely didn't want him watching Tony react. Natasha he could deal with, Barton would be easy to ignore, but Coulson was just too far past the line of familiar.

"Assuming he has a lock on the helicarrier location. He would have expected more than two people if that were the case, Stark, and he has no idea that anybody other than I and Loki were here." It was easy to forget that Coulson hated Schmidt almost as much as they did. If you cared to look closely enough you could still see evidence of the failed attempts to protect the tesseract: swollen bits of clothing where he was bandaged underneath, a slight favoring of his right wrist, a general aura of "fuck you world". "I don't trust Laufeyson. But I do trust that he's got a plan waiting, and I want to know what that is."

"Unless you can tell us?" Barton wondered a touch too loudly- his wince was nonexistent otherwise, but Tony's slightly more pronounced at the clanging echo of metal and flesh they were hearing on Loki's end. Nobody was speaking yet, though Loki's breathing evened out quickly enough, so he couldn't be sure what was going on. "Come on, you guys slow dance and hold conversations by looking into each other's eyes, don't you at least tell each other about the stuff that actually matters?"

"I'm assuming this was a spur of the moment thing," Tony retorted, thoroughly convinced otherwise. Loki, the complete bastard, had decided on his actions a long time before they even left the base.

"Whatever it is, he should have informed us. Stark's right, Hydra could come running through here at any moment. Schmidt doesn't know where Coulson was sent, he could be looking all over- for all we know, he really was able to track Laufeyson's magic, in which case he can track Coulson. Wait here too long and he'll become suspicious," Natasha reasoned, addressing Tony for about five seconds before turning her attention to her colleagues. Most specifically the one who used a reasonable weapon as opposed to some sharpened and sometimes-explosive sticks. "His men might already be on the way."

It seemed this, at least, was a good reason. On the other side of the microphone, Loki took a brath for speech, but something Schmidt did cut him off without a hitch. Hopefully that meant he hadn't been hurt any more. "Then Barton, you'll follow me. Romanov, keep an eye on Stark. And Stark… if you come up with a plan or get the sudden urge to do something? Don't."

Coulson's word was law far as Barton was concerned. If he had any trouble with his boyfriend using last names he didn't show it- the agent flicked his bow to a ready position and strode forward to stand by Coulson, leaving Natasha and Tony to do the same. Neither did, so they were on either side of the clearing with the duo in the middle, tension taut for a dozen different reasons that none wanted to speak of.

"If I get a what? "Sudden urge?" Wow, the SHIELD handbook really does cover everything, doesn't it?" Barton grinned, but Natasha didn't move and Coulson's smile was as easily misread as ever. Loki would probably have laughed.

None of them was the type for parting words. With instructions complete and communication ensured they set to work- Coulson and Barton off to lead Hydra on a wild chase, Natasha and Tony to… wait. Wait and move, because even if Tony found it hard to concentrate on anything more than the sound of ominously clinking metal and Loki's hitched breathing he knew that if Coulson was being tracked they would be swarmed within ten minutes. Standing in one spot for that long would be suspicious, even if they assumed him to be hurt.

So he suited back up, reluctantly clamping the helmet back on until the rapid breaths from Loki were almost indistinguishable from his own. Ignore it. "Unless you've got wings hidden in that catsuit I'm guessing you can't fly."

"Guess I'll have to hitch a ride," Natasha replied, something about her expression making discomfort shiver down Tony's back. Why couldn't she have gone off, too?

"Only if you buckle up, don't want a ticket."

"Do I look like the lawbreaking type, Stark?"

They shared a mutual grin-that-wasn't before turning back to the task at hand. Natasha was slim and light, so Tony had no trouble whatsoever holding her 'round the waist so he could carry them both off, but he wasn't worried about weight. He'd have to fly more carefully than he normally did- it wouldn't do very well for her to crash into a tree while he was swerving around.

On the other side of the microphone, Loki gasped in a shuddering lungful of air. Again, Tony recognized real, if exaggerated, pain in the sound and cringed behind the mask, but didn't even hesitate despite the look Natasha shot him. He could do this. "Always wanted you hanging onto me," He taunted, far from heartfelt.

Natasha must have noticed, because she said nothing. Their position was somewhat awkward, but Tony took off and had them through the trees with only a few second's fumbling, wishing he could fly fast enough for the air to drown out everything else. Since that first gasp, Loki's pain was almost always audible, and growing more so by the moment.

Tony picked up speed, and Natasha still said nothing, not yet. He didn't even know where they were going, so long as they kept the base close. "Careful." She warned, and he wasn't really sure what she meant, so he slowed both his flight and his breathing. A particularly rough choke of breath seemed to break some barrier for Loki- he spoke again, his voice as Tony had never heard it. It was unnerving, at the least, disturbing at the most. _"There's no point, you know."_

Tony almost hoped Schmidt wouldn't answer. He'd come to a halt- abrupt enough that he knew Natasha was going to be pissed soon, and was probably lucky not to be shot on the spot- without realizing it, listening for some genuine normality in Loki's tone. There, but just barely. "Stark, land."

Natasha's voice was harsh, and easy to listen to. Tony reluctantly did so, freeing her from his grip once they'd hit solid ground. Back at the base, that damned Nazi was replying. _"Pray tell, Mr. Laufeyson."_ He sounded bored, anticipatory- like he knew what Loki was going to say, the arrogant asshole.

Loki must have been having more trouble breathing than they could tell, because there was ragged gasping but for awhile no speech. Natasha drew his attention away from waiting, demanding he follow her on foot now. If they found anyone from Hydra, they killed them. No exceptions, and wasn't Tony happy to obey that rule. He had JARVIS on the lookout for any signs of life other than the pair of them, something to let them know of any potential threats. He tried to look manually, too, but Natasha was already scouting like a ninja, and he was nowhere near as good at it.

_"Because-"_ Loki must have caught his breath, though there was still something wrong about his speech, _"they are all so _brave._ Torture them- they won't break, no matter what you do. Kill them, they won't say a word."_

The gods, whoever Schmidt was really after. Natasha frowned uncertainly, but Tony could tell she was hoping that Loki was right. Schmidt with an Asgardian under his control would be a lot worse than Schmidt now. The nutjob didn't even seem worried though- he didn't respond, again, for a long while. JARVIS alerted Tony, probably to keep him from shooting everything nearby, of three large heat signatures to the left. They turned out to be bears, which was terrifying and vaguely entertaining for a few minutes, but not enough to deafen him.

_"Then I will have to find the ways to make a god break, hm? Lucky for me that I have you hear."_

It was like Tony had tuned into a nineteen-sixties radio show full of bad dialogue and painfully cheesy villains. Except that bad dialogue and those cheesy villains were not his reality, but Loki's, and that was enough to get his heart pounding. Not good for his health, all things considered. He waited for Loki to tease and reply, heard him call in the breath to do so, but instead of words Natasha froze and Tony had to bite back bile. Loki's scream was by all means genuine, and it didn't _stop._

VVV

Loki had to admit, Schmidt knew torture far better than did most. He had wasted no time on threats or foolishness, but immediately taken liberty to test the durability of a god's bones by breaking three of them. One was genuinely damaged, the other two he'd faked with magic- but still his wrist was turning quickly to a swollen purple, and his throat had been tight with pain every moment since.

But he'd managed to speak eventually, since keeping quiet was a failed attempt. Schmidt was brutal, uncaring- he didn't even glance at Loki to see the effects of his work, which was certainly what he would have done. But Loki did not torture for experiment, he tortured for effect and fun at times- if he'd been shearing the skin of a man's stomach, he would not have paid such close attention to what it revealed.

An effective method, and Loki could barely recall what he had finally said when he did speak, only that it sounded far more desperate than he had intended. Their "conversation" was halted and probably useless, with Schmidt too busy knifing away at Loki's midsection to care, and Loki too busy biting down his pain while he watched the first layer of skin methodically peeled from his abdomen. It was hard to protect himself from such a thing using magic- too many illusions of such a dramatic sort as this would require would be difficult to uphold all at once, and yet he couldn't very well allow Schmidt to do as he liked.

Each pull of the knife cleared his mind and dulled his throat- his words were stumbling, agonized, but his thoughts clearer from the sharpness of the pain. His stomach was coated in blood before long, and sweat was layered on his forehead, but a morbidly curious glance at his own body told him that it would be awhile yet before this step of torture was finished with. He was being carved open in ridiculously thin sheets, Schmidt could conceivably take as long as he liked.

The knife returned, and Loki's first scream came almost without his consent. Having an open wound torn deeper was far from pleasant, and the knife far from quick- Schmidt was being specific with his work, and slow enough that Loki could feel each stretch of flesh before the blade separated it from his body. He shut his eyes, but that only made the pain stronger somehow- still, he refused to look up at his "captor's" indifferent face.

But the screaming would not stop now that he had given in, and somehow that was all he needed. "Go ahead, take your time why don't you?" Half a curse, half a plea, but Loki's shuddering voice reflected nothing of his thoughts. Shapeshifting could work in two ways: illusion, or literally morphing his body. The latter was risky, but useful. He couldn't fool Schmidt through illusion without wasting all of his strength, but he could alter his form, in a way, feel the pain but retain no permanent damage so long as he remained conscious to keep the spell working. Pain he could deal with.

It wasn't a pleasant solution, but macabre or not he would deal with it. The magic was a distraction, at least- it was impossible to ignore the agony completely (his body was trembling, hot and soaked in feverish sweat, teeth practically cracking from grinding together so roughly), but he could put it to the back of his mind at least. It was still his body being torn into, still his pain- and oh, gods, there was so much pain- but the tears in it, the displacement, would not be retained.

Displacement. Loki could almost have laughed if he'd been able to gain control of his voice long enough to do it. His skin was being _shifted_ so Schmidt could get a closer look at his inner injuries. How disgusting. He was being split open, bit by bit- he had to focus on something else, work on his spell. But even as he did it he felt the urge to beg welling in the back of his throat, the revelation that this mortal had barely begun and oh, yes, he'd have spilled many secrets to be rid of this ordeal. The other Asgardians were not so uncaring about their foolish honor, however, and Schmidt would hear nothing from them- not like Loki planned to get the chance. This mortal was going to die before he summoned so much as a squirrel from that wretched place, he was going to pay for all of this.

"You're- you're testing my body's limits, not mine," He hadn't meant to say it, but Loki's words fell out as a whine and he forced his eyes open, surprised to see Schmidt glancing at him with boredom in his gaze. And a bloody knife raised in his hand, dripping over his otherwise immaculate leather glove. For some reason Loki had to pause before realizing that it was _his_ blood, and another tremor ran through him. He had not expected such a brutal beginning to all this. "What I can survive. Why not sedate me then?" Those mortal drugs had never worked well, but any relief would be welcome. "Or get on with it, at least. Wasting both our time."

Loki's silver tongue was cracked and hitched, but the shaking tenor that carried those last few words was due more to dramatized fear than pain- Schmidt had moved back with the knife already, and as soon as Loki was done speaking he dug it in once more. Loki gasped and swore, didn't scream until the blade moved again, but was grateful to find the knife had gone deeper this time. Anything to speed the process along.

"I cannot study your body's responses if the pain is not there, Lisemisth," Schmidt pointed out with false apology, noting the way Loki tugged involuntarily at the restraints with scientific intrigue. Calculating bastard. "I need to know when your mind breaks as well."

_You're far too late for that. _Loki didn't bother to respond, and reluctantly admitted that he probably would not have been able. This was not the worst pain he'd ever suffered- far from it, in fact- but that didn't mean the solution was any sort of pleasant. He screamed until he had no breath to do it with, until he was left gasping, choking, for more. If there was any way to tell Tony not to fear for him based on what he was hearing, Loki did not know it.

VVV

Tony was not, despite the tabloid's loving descriptions, a bully, but he very much wanted to become one at that moment. They had come by three Hydra soldiers, not one of which Tony pummeled as much as he would like to, and all of which declared that "two more would take their place" or some such bullshit. Unfortunately, no two did, and Tony was left with nothing that actually deserved it to vent his frustrations on, and so resorted to blasting apart rocks at infrequent intervals. It wasn't helping.

"That's not going to do any good, Stark," Natasha pointed out unhelpfully.

_Crack._ Tony glanced at the rubble of a semi-large boulder, wondering if anybody had heard it break, but JARVIS informed him that there was nothing alive nearby to hear it. "Yeah? Well if you've got any suggestions, I would love to hear them."

"You think I don't know how you feel right now?" It sounded like a sob had hitched in Loki's throat, but Tony doubted Schmidt would recognize the inflection. _Crack._ "I've worked with SHIELD for years, I've had to play the double agent countless times. Sometimes my friends are captured, and I can't do anything but watch them be torn apart." _Crack._ "At least _you_ know he's going to survive."

He was still fully suited up, but Tony hoped his glare was obvious even if she had no way of seeing it. "You know, I would love to listen to your self-righteous sob stories, but at the moment I really don't give a damn. I've had a friend die _for_ me because he _wanted_ to. And I've _been_ the one on the table, or did you think this thing was show and tell?" Natasha didn't so much as blink, but her eyes hardened as he tapped the reactor. "Maybe you have to, but I can tell you now that you have no idea what _this_ is like. I care about his life more than my own, and now he's run off and _let_ Schmidt take him and do whatever the fuck he wants-" Fuck. Tony turned away, and only with a great display of effort restrained himself from stomping off like some child.

Loki was hurting, that was all that mattered. And he had put himself in that situation willingly, to prove a point? To fool Schmidt? It didn't matter, except that it could have been avoided and hadn't, and Tony swore and punched the nearest tree. The suit protected his hand, but he wished it hadn't.

"I know more than you think," Natasha protested, and he groaned inwardly. God, dammit, he just wanted to be alone. "But for once violence isn't going to help, as much fun as it is. You need to calm down and think about something else."

"Easier said than done."

"Think about Loki then. Just not-" There had been a brief pause, but Loki's screaming picked up again and Natasha sighed slightly, "not that. I don't want to deal with you if you have a mental breakdown."

"I-" Oh, hell, like he had any better ideas. He closed his eyes, not like Natasha could see it, and took a deep breath. Didn't do much good. Fuck. Loki whimpered, and Tony grit his teeth until his jaw ached. Think of something else, something about Loki. That wasn't hard, really, Tony thought about Loki almost all the time now (it was almost pathetic and very school-girlish, but he didn't particularly give a damn), he just had to pick a favorite memory. Loki purring like a kitten in sleep, too tired to listen to them talk- or curled up on his porch, petting Fenrir when he was barely bigger than a fist- reading Tale of Two Cities on the couch until the late hours, falling asleep together by complete accident…

There was a lot, back to the very first time Tony had ever met Loki and wondered how something so seemingly fragile could be so damn durable. But eventually he managed to focus on one thought, one night. A very embarrassing night to his pride, admittedly, after Tony had been unusually open and talkative and saying ridiculous things like "I love you" just because of something like sex, and Loki had ripped his clothes off in an elevator. It was after the fact that he remembered, though- exhausted, sweaty and breathing hard, wrapped together under an unusually cool blanket until their bodies got tired of them cuddling and forced them to sleep. Cheesy, romantic, all together not Tony's usual, and he focused on remembering every detail of it.

VVV

Three hours, ten minutes, and fifteen seconds after the knife first tore his stomach, Loki was given a reprieve.

Not for his sake, but for Schmidt's. His skin was flayed open- cut down the middle, spread apart to reveal a mess of blood and guts underneath, and the scientist was apparently more interested in that than continuing Loki's torture. Loki wasn't in any hurry to turn him away, though he had long shut his eyes, refusing to look at his torso. It was his body for now, and even if it would return to normal when he stopped "shape-shifting", he would be down a large amount of blood, and that first inch or so of skin that had been peeled away before he'd come up with the plan. He was just lucky Schmidt had only split him open- if he'd literally sheared the flesh away from his body, Loki would be unable to retain it when he went back to the form that was entirely his own.

Three hours. His throat felt torn to shreds, and his lungs were raw. At some point he had grown too tired to scream any longer, but even the groans and whimpers had taken their toll in time. The dizziness was the worst part. Worse than the tremors that he couldn't control, or the fire that wouldn't go out around his belly, even worse than the nausea that had him choking on his own bile, each contraction of his stomach as he suppressed the urge to vomit only doubling the pain there.

Worse because he couldn't _think_ properly. The pain had ceased to be sharpening, and now only muddled his physical and mental senses. He was shivering, panting, whining like a child and he couldn't gather up the will to stop himself. Schmidt must have found it hilarious. Loki wanted to burn him, tear him open, melt his skin off where he stood- but none of that was possible without magic, and he had expected pain. Counted on it.

"You look tired, Laufeyson." It was mockery if ever he'd heard it, but Loki's mocking grin in response fell weakly on his own lips. Not the best condition for banter. "We may be done sooner than I expected."

Good. If he thought Loki was dying, then he could sooner feign his own passing. It took a few moments to call in enough breath for speech, but Schmidt's senses were heightened enough that Loki was confident his weak mutterings could be heard all the same. "Well, I'd hate to disappoint. Water?"

Connecting the two sentences was too much effort, but Schmidt understood the point. Loki (if he was as ill as he was leading the man to believe) would not survive long without water. If he wanted to keep his victims alive in the future, it would do Schmidt good to know what could keep them going. So within five minutes (Loki focused on the time, rather than the disturbing feeling of exposure as Schmidt studied and shifted his stomach, inspecting the damage that had earlier been done to it so he could take that into account) an agent entered their private little room with a large glass of water. Loki's hands were restrained, and his head felt too heavy to lift, so he had to let the mortal-who was completely undaunted by the sight of Loki's inner organs- hold the glass to his lips. No matter, really. Less work for him.

Water made him feel sick, and it burned his throat on the way down, but it brought back something like strength that he was going to need very soon. A half hour felt like far less before Schmidt had finished with his observations, and Loki shut his eyes tight once more, knowing somehow what would come next. His ribs had long since healed, but protecting his side as he had his stomach turned out to be the best bet- Schmidt's knife, now wiped clean of Loki's blood so it could retain more, sliced up the length of one rib in one clean, drawn out movement. It was nothing compared to the pain in his abdomen, but he shuddered all the same at the soft scrape of metal on bone.

And so it went. Loki had his ribs broken in two and turned outward while they were still in his body. His nails were torn away and a strand of muscle pulled from his bicep, ailments that would recover but only after a long stretch of time had been devoted to healing. He was injected with serums that Schmidt claimed were used to kill mere humans, force-fed poison and made to go over ten minutes without blinking. He was allowed no more water, and his wounds were left open- his stomach exposed throughout all of this, unprotected as his body thrashed in pain. He didn't even want to look to imagine what sort of a mess he must have looked like.

And Tony was listening to all of it, growing (no doubt) to hate Schmidt as strongly as Loki did. He could almost have grinned to imagine it. Now he would know, at least, and feel as compelled as Loki to hunt the fool down and see him suffer in far worse ways than Loki was. He wasn't quite sure how long had passed anymore- roughly twelve hours, too long for Tony to be waiting in the forest- before he saw his opportunity, but he knew he couldn't keep himself whole through this much longer.

Fire, heat. Of course Schmidt would resort to it eventually- Loki tried to appear fearful as the man pulled out what appeared to be some form of heated metal tongs, but there may have been a touch of relief behind it. Had he been in his Jotun form he would truly be in danger, but in this body… oh, yes, he could deal with the heat, though Schmidt didn't need to know that.

He had even turned up the temperature in the room, which Loki's feverish body didn't much appreciate. "I thought- you wanted…" Silver tongue, where had that gone? "They won't care about… that. Not testing just- it's useless."

The words were slurred more than necessary, and less coherent than he could have made them. Schmidt's expression never changed drastically, but his smirk was somewhat self-satisfactory now. "Consider this a test of your will then, Liesmith. Everybody has a weakness, I will find theirs. The effect will be the same."

"Please." Ugh, pathetic, but he had tried begging already, pleaded for death to hurry things along. It couldn't have been nice for Tony to hear. "Please just- don't do this. You…you know enough. Kill me, then get one of them."

"I plan to. In time." More than Loki would suffer through, no doubt. Schmidt looked amused by all this, like he would try his best to keep his victim on the verge of life for hours yet. He could, easily, but there was no reason to be so truthful. "Now, hold still or I will make this far less pleasant."

The blood-soaked leather of Schmidt's gloved hand clamped down on his chin, forcing his jaw open. Loki felt a brief moment of panic, realizing there was some form of hot metal or coal between those tongs and what it was meant for, but forced himself to relax. This he could deal with, easily.

But he fought all the same, as much as he wanted to appear that he could- which was very little indeed. If not for the infrequent water and other aid Schmidt provided, he probably would have been well past unconscious by now, even if the damage was being exaggerated or lessened by magic. Unsurprisingly, his efforts were effortlessly staunched, and after letting him agonize in fear a moment longer the burning rock-if it was a rock indeed- was dropped down his mouth, and both Schmidt's hands forced his mouth closed and held it there.

The burn lasted barely a second. Magic could crush the thing to powder easily, which was no better to ingest but bearable, anyway. And when, after screaming behind closed lips and thrashing in vain, he swallowed that down Schmidt seemed to believe he had succeeded. His hands were removed, with something like a look of distaste, and Loki was left to scream out loud. For once the sound was almost entirely fabricated, and his struggles against the binds, desperate attempts to claw at his throat and be rid of the burning ember inside it, were chosen reactions. It felt good, like he was back in control of his body, but he had no time to appear relieved.

The ash was painful in its own right, and faking tears of agony wasn't as hard as it ought to have been, but even he had trouble with the inflections to his screaming. They had both heard men die before, they knew the subtleties of it. He had to be exact.

He didn't want Tony to hear this.

Loki's screams began to choke, as if he was gagging on blood and saliva, and his body jerked irregularly. He made his breath rattle as it went, and rolled his eyes back in his head, efforts to break free growing steadily weaker. Schmidt did not seem happy- Loki was playing it right, then, and he knew the gasping he took up was rarely heard from a man with much time left to him.

He wanted to at least say assure him that it was all still an act.

There was a hand-glove removed- checking his pulse and other vital signs. Loki dutifully ignored it, and let magic do what his acting could not. He moaned in pain, screamed again with a touch more strength than he had before, and muttered half-formed words as they came to mind, most of them pleas for something that he figured would sound appropriate. Tony's name came up more than once, for shownmanship's sake.

He would have hated to know what Tony sounded like while he was dying. Hated to be in his lover's position right now.

Schmidt had given up- Loki assumed he looked disappointed, but for obvious reasons didn't bother to see for himself. His "final" scream wore away to gasping and shuddering, body twitching and fighting until he could fall still with one last, exhausted exhale.

Keeping his eyes open was the worst part. Magic could hide a heartbeat and he didn't need to breathe right now, not really, so there was nothing left for Schmidt to see when he came to confirm the "loss" of his experiment.

A long, long beat of silence. Loki didn't dare look to see what Schmidt was doing, but he heard footsteps both near and far, back and forth, for a few minutes. To his surprise, Schmidt's final approach brought an unexpected relief- whatever respect this psychotic mortal had held for the gods compelled him, at least, to close Loki's eyes. He'd have thought it annoying, useless sentiment from anyone else. Schmidt had probably never felt anything like sentiment in his life, despite the gods' preaching about respect for the dead. Even Loki had been very specific about that.

A pair of bloody leather gloves landed on his chest, but Loki didn't move. "Be grateful, Laufeyson. You are returning to Stark sooner than expected." His tone could have been mocking, or disinterested, or perhaps merely bored, but Loki cared not. All that mattered was that the door had slammed shut moments later, and men would be there soon to collect his "corpse".

He swallowed a great gulp of breath, and let his body truly relax. The illusions fell away, leaving him far from whole but closer to it, and with energy he could not spare Loki snapped the restraints holding him down and forced himself to action. He wanted to curl up on the table and sleep the pain away, but rest would have to be delayed a moment longer.

VVV

Tony had never thought he would have to listen to Loki dying, and he wished he never had. It was fake. Had to be, but god, dammit, it sounded so real. For hours he had been screaming and begging and Tony was forced to listen to all of it. He had, at least, gotten out of his suit back at the helicarrier. SHIELD was ready to move off and find Hammer, and he'd taken advantage o the equipment on board to remove his armor before they (minus their team for some reason) flew off. Currently it was Tony, Natasha, Barton and Coulson waiting at the outskirts of the woods, for Loki's return and the dropoff Tony had ordered of his portable armor.

They all heard him dying, too, but worse they heard Tony's reaction to it. He could listen to the torture. He could listen to the crying, the begging, the cursing- but he couldn't listen to that weakening of breath or Loki's final gasp. By the time Schmidt was talking, Tony was screaming at the receiver for Loki to answer him, to say something to prove it wasn't real.

None of the agents had much to say to him after that.

Everybody was eerily silent, in fact, for a long while. Tony was cursing and pulling his hair and finding it impossible to concentrate on good memories when the communicator clicked back to life, and Loki's weary voice came through at last.

_"Pardon, darling. I couldn't interrupt that performance,"_ He apologized, and Tony was always suspicious of Loki's apologies. Right now, however, he couldn't care what he lied about, so long as he got back to them ASAP.

"Fucking-" Right, couldn't hear him. Tony went back to pacing (numbers running through his head, equations and observations and percentages that told him more than he wanted to know), and Barton looked at him like he was a mental patient or about to become one. Coulson was just waiting, and Natasha making calls in Russian. All three of them shared meaningful looks at random intervals.

Tony flinched at the sound of more grunting on the other end- but that wasn't Loki's voice. Two inelegant thumps were barely audible, but a familiar laugh much more so, even if it was too exhausted to be genuine. And then, by some divine gift, Loki was back in the clearing.

He was barely on his feet, drenched in blood and as dull-eyed as he had been during the worst of his recovery all those months ago. Tony recognized the signs of it, and before Loki's legs gave out he was there to catch him, holding him more than supporting him and bringing them both to the ground. The SHIELD agents rushed forward, though none, thank god, was dumb enough to speak.

"You fucking asshole. You couldn't have warned me beforehand? Do you know what I had to fucking sit through?" Tony demanded all in a rush, startled by the anger of his own words. He'd expected relief, or concern, but he was _pissed._ He was motherfucking Tony Stark and he did not do well with worry."I thought you were going to die. You could have said it in any other language, or whispered or something, but you didn't even let me know-"

"_Tony._" Loki's respiration was no better than it had sounded over machine, and if anything there was a genuine note of pleading that Tony had not yet heard. "Not- not now."

Tony froze, looked him over. Loki's stomach was grazed, like the first layer had been peeled away then ripped unkindly off, and the amount of blood was outstanding. He was favoring his wrist, his fingernails were long gone, and his left arm was feebly unresponsive. Mostly it was his eyes- dull, tired, almost older. Tony felt one part sick and two parts desperate, so he nodded wearily. "Fine. Later. You look tired, Babe, take a load off."

Or two, or three. Loki seemed to register what this meant, and nodded with relief, eyes fluttering shut as if against his will. Like he'd been waiting for permission. He'd collapsed on his side, and now lay with his head buried in Tony's lap, and within seconds of a warm, familiar hand carding through his hair he was unconscious, buried in a shallow sleep.

**A/N:More about what SHIELD's doing back/what they accomplished during Loki's... "session" will be described in the last chapter. I didn't want to get too far off the actual concern of the chapter- and I'm very sorry if not much happened. As you all know by now, I love writing Loki abuse.**

**Sorry for all the delays, this part of the story is hard to write for some reason. It's just not coming out the way I would like it to.  
><strong>


	27. Farewell to the Goose Chase

**A/N: So I would blab out some senior-year excuse, but there's not much point. Chapters are going to be awhile for these last few, but rest assured it will not be abandoned. There are only a few more left, two or three, so I'll do my best to make them count! Thank you all for putting up with my dreadful schedule, I hope you enjoy this chapter. I wasn't too pleased with it, but I rarely am proud of my writing, so that doesn't say much.**

It was no small problem getting Loki bandaged up- the conditions were unsanitary, his wounds uncertain, and their equipment minimal. In the end they settled for wrapping his stomach in disinfectant, gauze, and ace bandages, pressing cloth and iodine where his fingernails should be, and putting a splint around his wrist, leaving the blackish bruise forming on his left arm untouched. Or, well, Tony did- he wasn't anywhere near as medically proficient as any of SHIELD's agents, but he wasn't about to let them lay a hand on Loki. Barton muttered something about paranoia, and okay, so Tony was willing to admit he had a point but unwilling to do anything about it.

Who wouldn't be paranoid, all things considered? "So what happens next? You're out of a ride, and he's not exactly in the best condition to teleport you anywhere." They had a plan, no doubt, or they wouldn't have stayed- but Tony wasn't up for SHIELD's games, cryptic answers and half-truths.

"Fury thinks Schmidt's just leading us on. He wants us to take advantage of his absence and investigate the base while he believes we're all off looking for Hammer," Coulson replied, and Tony only rose an eyebrow in response. Things were never that simple with Fury. "And he wants the two of you to go stop him from starting a war with Asgard."

"Nope, bad idea. Does he look ready to you? Actually, if you can find five things about him that _don't_ look beaten half to hell, I'll hire the cast of Supernanny to visit your house. Go on, try it." That had actually been Loki's plan in all of this, hadn't it? Clearing them up to go face Schmidt alone, distracting SHIELD in whatever way he needed. Well, apparently it had worked well enough that, even knowing what Loki was up to, Fury was actually _ordering_ them away.

"Well, his hair doesn't look too bad." This from Barton, in a perfect deadpan. Equally devoid of emotion, Natasha reached out to smack him on the back side of the head, and Coulson ignored them both with practiced ease. SHIELD was just fucking weird.

"Try telling him to stay." Coulson folded his arms, giving one of those 'I know I'm right and I'm not sorry' smiles, except not so much the second part for once. He looked… sympathetic, maybe, but then again even Natasha seemed worried on Tony's behalf, considering how much of a mess he had been since Schmidt went off with Loki.

Tony hated being pitied, but he knew that neither of them was the pitying type- sympathy, which was annoying enough, pure and simple. But apparently not enough of it to make the smart decision. "I don't need to, if SHIELD will call someone in to get him to a hospital. You saw him, he was weak even before this shit happened."

His tone was angry, and his volume a little uncontrolled- slight inflections, but enough for Loki to shift nervously in his sleep and shuffle closer to Tony, a huff of breath releasing a slight sound of protest. Even unconscious there was something increasingly… manic about him. There was more tension and anxiety in this body than the one that had rumbled like a cat when he was too exhausted to keep up conversation. He was stressed, angry, hurt, and he wasn't going to change while he was still scared of seeing his brother, and still angry that someone had been allowed to walk away after hurting Tony.

And oh, Tony got that now. Schmidt had hurt Loki. It didn't matter that the god had orchestrated it- he'd had to sit there, and listen to his boyfriend fucking scream, so Schmidt could just fucking _walked away_. Something in his face must have given his thought process away, because Coulson was silent, a barely-there presence in the background as Tony looked down on Loki, slowly relaxing into his still-fitful sleep. He looked exhausted, and Tony thought back to all he had ever heard of Thor, and how likely it was that Schmidt would try for the most prevalent god of Nordic myth.

"Oh, fuck," Tony groaned and ran a hand through his hair, barely resisting the urge to hide his face in it. Loki would be furious if they wasted their chance. "We don't even know where Schmidt went."

"Loki does. He wouldn't have let him leave if he didn't, you know that, Stark," Natasha cut in. And yeah, he got the name Black Widow, now- she was like a spider, waiting for the best chance to sink her teeth in. And outside of the bedroom, Tony preferred to avoid that sort of thing. "He has a plan. You wake him up, get on the way, and we make our move on the base. With any luck, you find Schmidt, we find Hammer, and they both get what's coming to them before dinner."

"He's going to kill him, you know. Or I will, it's probably gonna be a first come basis thing. Fury doesn't care?" Of course he didn't, or he would never have given them the call, but for some reason Tony wanted to hear it from them.

Coulson's smile was thin, but not, for once, with disapproval. "Oh, we're beginning to feel that Schmidt has overstayed his welcome by about seventy years. If you can, find out how he survived, but we that's all the interest we have in him."

Tony doubted Loki would wait patiently enough to ask questions, though he might consider it a good chance to repay the torture he had taken (which did not sit well with Tony, even if Schmidt was a sadistic psychopath who probably deserved it), but he nodded anyway, with just enough of an eye roll for Coulson not to expect much in the way of results. "So fine, we go our separate ways. Is Fury paying you extra to babysit me for an hour, too? Because I didn't bring my emergency numbers, and I have a very long list of needs that must be seen to before my bedtime."

"What, you think we're going to ditch you in the woods?" Said Barton, least sympathetic of all. He rolled his eyes in the same way Tony had, a little martyr-esque sigh following the words. It was hard to decide if the archer was his favorite of the group, or if he wanted to knock him out of his tree. "You could probably defend yourself if a Hydra squad showed up, _if_ you managed to get that suit on in time, but just grab or kill Loki. And if they didn't one would probably get away, and let Schmidt know that Loki isn't actually dead. So, yeah, we're babysitting, and it'll cost you, because all three of us is CPR certified."

"If I pass out, you let me die before you kiss me, got it?"

"What about Natasha?"

"Okay, the previous rule does not apply to attractive Russians, but I can't be held responsible for this guy's retaliation." He gestured toward Loki, who took that chance to give a very cute, very non-threatening little yawn and nuzzle his head against Tony's stomach, looking like some restless little cat. Normally he would have laughed, but now he just felt his throat tighten with worry- seeking comfort was not at all like Loki. The pain had to be bad if he was going to cuddle up to anybody, even in his sleep, and it took all of Tony's willpower not to demand they call a jet and get them out of there that moment. Even in horrible pain, Loki was going to want his chance to go after Schmidt, putting himself at risk. Again.

Not the thing he wanted to be thinking about at the moment, so he turned his mind back to business. Not much else to discuss- much as he would rather leave Loki be, he had to wake him up so they could get this all over with, and hopefully return to Miami with the world intact. "He's going to be in a shitty mood when I get him up, so you three should get going. Your receivers will still link you to me, so don't be strangers if some other more immediate world-threatening danger pops up," Tony said, with false confidence that he sometimes wished weren't so well-practiced.

The three of them shared a _look_, and Tony wondered what repercussions there might be if he started throwing rocks at them. Then he remembered that he was supposedly a mature adult and decided against it, but adopted an expression that made his message no less clear, and with the establishment of a few more rules and rendezvous they departed, and Tony didn't bother to watch them go.

How did one awaken a physically traumatized Norse god without being burnt alive by magic? Tony couldn't think of anything but "be loud and hope for the best", so he did exactly that- with the addition of a cautious shake to the shoulders. Loki had been twitching in his sleep enough that consciousness couldn't be too far off, and in fact it only took about a minute of attention before the god made some startled, sleepy sound of surprise and blinked to awareness, turning his head sluggishly back and forth in search for some attacker.

Thankfully Tony didn't seem to fit the bill, and no magic came flinging his way. Loki frowned and groaned, squinting against the suddenness of the light, and looked up at him a long moment before speaking. "Tony. Are you ready to go, then?"

Why was it not surprising that he already knew exactly what decision Tony was going to land on? "You know, I always thought _I_ was bad with prioritizing my own well-being, but you make me look like the speaker in a Sunday special on safety-first."

"I aim to please. Now let's go."

"Shouldn't you be in a bit more agonizing pain right about now?" He was sweating, and breathing hard, and shut his eyes in relief when Tony brushed back a strand of loose hair, ready for any comfort. "We should take this easy."

"No time." Loki immediately tried to sit up when he heard patience might be involved, but groaned and fell back down, a hand coming to rest on his bandaged stomach. "Don't you dare claim I can't walk, I'll manage it. And once I do, we go and kill Schmidt."

"Do we even now where he went? It's usually easier to kill somebody if you can, you know, locate them."

"He's headed towards a city on the coast, a hundred miles or so. I can track him, easily, he may have washed off my blood but there was magic in it, and that will stick if I want it to." For somebody with a layer of their stomach missing, Loki was speaking with surprising coherency. Of course, his voice also cracked at points and was frequently too low to be easily audible, so Tony didn't feel the least bit reassured.

He was beginning to see why people hated it so much when he was this reckless, but he could also see exactly where Loki was coming from here, and really, it would be just plain hypocritical to refuse. "Fine, fine. If Schmidt's going to Boston, we'd better hurry. Fury wouldn't be happy if I let that guy destroy Harvard." New York would have been the obvious choice, if Schmidt was looking for a city, but it was probably a lot safer for him- less opposition, meaning Tony and Loki couldn't count on any help. Not many superheroes tended to pop up in Boston.

Relief spread over Loki's face, and he even rewarded Tony with an honest-to-god, _happy _smile. "Good. Then help me stand, and put on your suit- I've got a plan."

* * *

><p>VVV<p>

Loki really did love Tony, far more than he should ever allow himself to love a mortal, but sometimes the man could be one of the most infuriating creatures he had ever had the (mis?)fortune to lay eyes upon.

He had been intending to travel by himself, really, but changing shape did not mean erasing the damage that Schmidt had done. It was going to take awhile for him to numb the pain, even with his magic, and doing so while in the form of a flying Kite… not simple. Bad enough Tony had recognized the bird and joked ten times at least about the similarity its name apparently shared with some child's toy, but he was forced all the same to perch on the man's shoulder as he flew in that wretched suit. Luckily he could keep his weight when he transformed, no mere light hunting bird that would be torn away by the air as soon as speed picked up, but he almost would have preferred that to his lover's ridiculous jokes.

"Hey, babe, you're in luck- I think I just spotted a mouse down there," Tony quipped, grinning as he gestured downward to where Loki supposed there was a mouse of some sort waiting below at least one of those trees, even if the man hadn't actually spotted it. He didn't bother looking though, head ducked into his wing, hiding from the wind and cold. "Want to make a pit-stop?"

"Do shut up, Tony darling, or I'll break these rockets," Loki said, though it came out as nothing beyond a series of chirps and squawks. He gave up on attempting to communicate his annoyance and only dug his talons, far sharper and stronger than any true bird's, into the metal coating Tony's shoulder. The right foot with more strength, and JARVIS must have noticed, because Tony took the hint and began to veer to their right, where Loki knew Schmidt was waiting not too far off.

Schmidt. Oh, how long he had waited for this chance- Loki knew there was more waiting still to come, that they would have to rest in the city until nighttime came and Schmidt decided to make his move. Of course they would be close enough to immediately stop him, but it would be impossible to distinguish his exact location in such a large city until he made himself more noticeable.

And he would, no doubt. Their weapon would be set up somewhere amongst the towering buildings, and they would gather around it once it was recognized, in the nearest hotel or place of rest until Schmidt decided to make an appearance.

And only they would be able to recognize it, in whatever changed form it no doubt had adopted. Schmidt, thinking they were both dead, would think it impossible that he should ever be caught and not take the risk of damaging his work by disguising it against people who wouldn't recognize it. It would be so obvious when they found it, obvious because Schmidt saw no reason in it being anything else, and they would _have him._ Loki's excitement came in the way of another chirp, and Tony laughed through the mask, a hollow sound in this environment, not quite that chuckle he had come to love but almost enough.

"Seriously though, you are way too happy about being able to kill this guy. Tone it down, babe, and make sure you actually rest before the night, all right?"

_I see no reason to do any such thing._ "Chirp."

"I'll take that as a yes."

_You are ridiculous._ "Chirp."

Tony laughed again, and Loki enjoyed the sound enough that he didn't even take the time or effort to feel anger over it. Speaking, even as a bird, was exhausting, and feathers over his stomach only hid the damage there, they did no good in lessening the pain it caused. He had never fully recovered from his fall to this planet, allowing what he had… it could set his recovery back weeks. But it would be worth it, more than worth it, if he could watch Schmidt crumble under his own arrogance.

All he had to suffer was a little more patience, that was all. And living as long as he had, Loki could boast much in the way of that.

* * *

><p>Their hotel was small, homely, and outside of almost anybody else's pay-grade, probably owing to the amount of creature comforts that had been bestowed upon their room. It had a window overlooking the top of the city- enough to see out all they wished, but too high for much of a view inward, right at the top of the "telescope" the town was so excited to see attached to one of their universities. Loki was lying on their bed as Tony peered outside, making sure their vantage point was good enough for their purpose. He would have insisted on scouting it out himself, but the trip, even if he had spent most of it cooped up as a bird, had exhausted him, and he was content enough to simply lie down and let energy return as it would.<p>

After all, he wanted all his strength available for the fight with Schmidt. "Yup, just like we thought, we've got us some prime Nazi-watching spots here. Mr. Gloom-and-Doom won't know what hit 'im." Tony was grinning as he turned away, but Loki knew him well enough to spot concern when the man lay beside him on the bed, arms folded behind his head and gaze fixed on the bandaged surface of Loki's stomach. "If he doesn't show up tonight, I'm counting it as a blessing. You should be resting."

"I should be, but the question is, will I?" Loki smiled at Tony's indignant frown and leaned over to give him a placating kiss. "I will. Eventually. No point in wasting my time on sleep until he's gone, though, I won't be able to relax, no matter how tired I am."

"Well, unless you've got a Schmidt-tracking bloodhound in your pocket, we're not going anywhere until he decides to make his grand finale, and I'm betting that's not going to happen at one in the afternoon. More lights go up at night, he won't make a move until then." More lights, more power, more idiotic notions about being a man worthy of the gods and whatever such nonsense he was so fond of. Yes, a dramatic evening show would fit what Loki had seen of Schmidt, and he nodded his agreement, though his lip curled in displeasure as he did it.

Hours yet of waiting ahead of them- it wouldn't be dark for another six hours at the very least. Time to kill, and Loki had no intentions of wasting it. He leaned over for another kiss, this one more playful than placating, and chuckled at Tony's wary expression. "What? We have to pass the time somehow."

"And normally I would agree wholeheartedly, but we already had sex once while you were badly injured, I don't really intend to repeat that. And don't even try to fake being well this time, you could barely stand."

"I don't need to stand, though we can try that when I'm better." Tony glared, and Loki couldn't help a laugh- it was so strange, seeing that expression on him. "Look, you're mortal. You are hardly going to exhaust me."

"Rude."

"Here." Loki kissed him once more, and with a bit of fumbling, and a thankful lack of fighting on Tony's part, pulled the man to rest over his lap, grinning at the dawning smirk he was beginning to earn. "And my stomach doesn't even have to suffer."

Now the kiss was returned, wolfishly, and Loki couldn't help a laugh. So like Tony to take any reasonable excuse for a bit of fun. "If you even _think_ about anything but the fun kind of pain, we're stopping, blue balls or not."

"Don't be crude," Loki muttered, biting the warning away with a playful nip to Tony's lip, letting his hands rest on the man's hips, careful to keep any pressure of his fingers where the nails had been torn away. Pain was ever-present, especially in his stomach, and it would probably only grow worse. He couldn't help that- but he wanted the pleasure Tony could give him, and the relief avoiding his thoughts for awhile would offer. His hands brushed under Tony's shirt and hiked upward, sighing at the familiar warmth of his vaguely scarred skin.

"Whoa, you don't waste time, do you?" Tony teased, bending to press his lips to Loki's neck, careful to avoid his chest, and played with the soft skin until he earned a laughing moan. "Normally I'm against the magic thing-"

"Say no more." A brief wave of his hands and their clothes flashed to the other side of the room, leaving them bare but for the coarse bandages over his stomach. Loki dipped his head back to let Tony lap at his throat and let out a breathy sigh, humming contentedly before turning his head to capture another kiss.

Normally being in bed with Tony turned into something of a battle- this was slow, pleasant, languid kisses and the turn and lift of their bodies, quiet relaxed breath slowly rising into gasps and roiling heat. Before long Loki's hips were bucking no matter how hard he fought against the urge, and both of them were panting, flushed hard against the other's form, moaning at each roll of the hips. Eventually Tony worked up enough breath to call for an interlude, and Loki managed to comply, nodding breathlessly as the other man rose on his knees to keep them apart, situating himself. This was a little unusual for them both- normally if Tony was bottoming he did it on his back or stomach, not Loki's lap.

But apparently he knew what he was doing. Loki was ready to move to help him, but Tony shook his head and grinned at the trickster's amusement, holding his hand out pointedly. Curious, Loki cast the implied spell, and sat back to even out his breath, watching as Tony reached backward and lowered himself onto his coated fingers, gasping softly. The man wasn't a fan of caution, he took none of the care that Loki would, rather driving in and out of his own body quickly and eagerly, eyes falling shut and mouth open, heavy little breaths passing through the air. Loki watched him, transfixed, and didn't realize his own breathing had picked up until Tony opened an eye and shot him a strained smile.

"Liking the view?" Gasping and tension were somewhat detrimental to the teasing tone of his voice, and the words were immediately followed by a brief cry that ended in even heavier breath. "Jesus _fuck._ Ah-okay, okay, I'm ready, come on, I'm ready."

"Always so eager." Loki's hands were shaking slightly when he reached to pull Tony's away by the wrist, holding them in place as he leaned forward for another kiss, only releasing when their mingled breathing had taken on a reasonable rhythm. He checked in- his fingers felt terrible, his arm worse and his stomach even worse than that, but nothing new. This was fine. "Don't just worry about me."

"Much easier than worrying about myself ya know." But he consented, and let himself relax, waiting to meet his lover's eyes and receive an almost eager nod before sinking down onto Loki's cock, kept slow and patient by a pair of hands on his hips.

Tony was breathless, but the familiar warmth forced a long moan from Loki, who shut his eyes tight, struggling not to simply buck up wildly into the other's form. There was a long moment of stillness, and it wasn't until they were both shaking that Tony began to rock, up down, forward and backward, slow and almost methodical. Finally Loki allowed himself to move, letting out another moan from relief as much as pleasure, mimicked with something of a laugh from Tony.

He blinked his eyes open, keeping the rhythm of his thrusts without conscious thought, narrowing his focus to the inner wash of pleasure and the flushed ecstasy coloring Tony's expression. His lips were kiss-swollen and parted to allow pleasured gasps through, eyes only half-shut and unfocused, all attention drawn inward to the mingling of their bodies. It was halfway between fascinating and alluring, and Loki never looked away, fighting to keep his eyes open when the pleasure began to flare and control began to waver.

He was nearly over the edge when Tony broke- coming with a gasp and not a cry, head falling back and eyes squeezing shut in a silent shout as his body went tense. Loki barely managed to keep his eyes locked on that moment free from thought before his own pleasure took him over. He moaned Tony's name, repeated it as often as his breath would allow, mindless for a long moment before his vision cleared and he was lying, panting, sweating, warm, against sheets reeking of sex to watch Tony pull off and collapse by his side in similar states.

Of all things, he turned on his side, kissed Loki on the neck, and asked, "Feeling any better?"

Loki was startled for a moment. His stomach was in worse pain, clenched muscles flaring in protest, his arm was aching, his head pounding, almost feverish, and he was exhausted. "Much." Tony waited, ensuring this wasn't a lie, then mimicked Loki's smile and relaxed against the pillow. Within five minutes, they were both wrapped in a painless sleep.

* * *

><p>Loki had almost been sure he would be awoken by Tony shaking him and demanding he hurry, Schmidt was attacking, they had no more time to waste, they'd missed his arrival. Instead he slowly dawned on alertness, a content heaviness still thrumming through his veins, to barely-dimming light and the sharp smell of coffee he had come to associate with Tony's waking rituals. Most likely it had been brought in by room-service or a nearby store, considering the appalled shudder Tony had given when Loki had suggested a cup of the hotel's offered instant drink once he had spotted a machine in their room.<p>

He lifted his head lazily for a look, but didn't take the effort to rise or sit up. "You are likely to go into shock if you continue introducing this much caffeine into your blood stream, you know."

"Almost certainly. Care to join me in my addiction?" A cup was offered, smelling sweet and rich and not quite hot enough to steam, but warm in Loki's hands when he accepted it. Tony's, of course, was scalding, exactly how he best enjoyed it, and both shook their head in disbelief that the other could stand to swallow down the thing in their hands. "So no signs of Schmidt just yet, but that doesn't mean much. Secret entrances are pretty much his shtick, we probably won't be able to see him until he's already running the machine."

"No matter, we'll have time to stop it." Loki was right in his guess- the coffee was more sugar than anything else, far from the bitterness that Tony so loved. "The tesseract is here, I can feel it. Once he tries to activate it I will know, and then we move."

It was the only reason he had let himself sleep at all- such a stir of power would have roused him in enough time to prevent Schmidt from summoning any unwanted glimpses of the past. The bed creaked and dipped with Tony's weight, and Loki at last sat up to lean, barely elevated to preserve his stomach, against the headboard. "What's the plan of action, then? He's probably found a way to deactivate our kill-switch."

"We break it."

"Subtle."

"I'm not looking for finesse, Tony, I want to ruin Schmidt, not put on an artistic display. You should be able to do that in your suit, I'll deal with him while you do it."

"Able to do what, be artistic? Sure, I'll carve flowers into the floor or something."

Loki raised an unamused eyebrow, and after a long and mostly uncomfortable silence Tony cleared his throat and took another swig of coffee. "Okay, yeah, I'll deal with it. What if he's got back-up?"

"I'm expecting it, we can deal with anything he has for us. Remember, he's expecting very little resistance." Half of the drink was almost too much for his stomach to deal with. He set it aside with a vague grimace, and turned so his legs dangled over the bed, holding himself upright without having to bend his stomach in the process. He had grown used to preserving that area by now. "I'll deal with them as well. You just tear it down."

Tony nodded, and took another sip of his drink. Neither of them had much beyond that to say, and after Loki dressed with a snap of his fingers they simply sat beside each other in silence, his gaze fixed out the window as Tony fiddled absently with his phone. Loki had figured out the games and bonuses on the one he had been given, yet he couldn't find much enjoyment out of such trivial entertainment. Tony always used his for work, of course, but Loki kept that little black box locked away in his personal sub-space unless he had urgent need for a phone call.

It grew dark after a half hour or so, and another hour after that Loki was about to drift off again when his head shot upright, body humming with the awareness of energy, rather than the possession of it. "Let's go."

Tony glanced up, met his gaze, and shut his phone off. Loki was on his feet before the man had even reached his suitcase, and set in the illusion of his armor before Tony had even begun to don his. He was growing impatient even in that two-second gap, and had little tolerance for the low whistle of surprise Tony let off when he turned Loki's way.

"Well, I've gotta say, you look pretty good in metal. Where'd that even come from?"

"It's magic, Anthony, now don't bother questioning it." Loki felt a moment's guilt at the way Tony cringed to hear his first name, but he doubted the sting would last, and it delivered his point well enough. Time to leave.

* * *

><p>VVV<p>

Tony hoped this thing with Schmit went over smoothly, because he was really getting tired of Loki's interminable bad mood. He could deal with grumpy, he was usually pretty bad himself and had grown up with Howard of all people. A bad attitude every now and then was no big deal to him, but he didn't really like seeing the strain it was taking on Loki, the constant look of a dog ready to bite. Sure, Tony wasn't the _best_ person to be giving anti-stress lectures, but even he could see that Loki was doing himself a lot more harm than good.

Well, at least he could guarantee that things would be a lot better by the end of the day. All they had to do in the mean time was kill a super-soldier Nazi from seventy years ago who probably had a drone army lurking in nearby buildings. For Tony, that may as well have been a Sunday brunch.

For Loki it was probably common-place, like "hey, who wants to kill some dictators before lunch?", but the previous failures were obviously bothering him enough that it had become more a "I am going to kill this man in a thousand horrible ways and if any of you attempt to stop me I will feed you to rabid lions" type thing. He looked within moments of destroying the first thing that came his way, and Tony was beginning to worry that he was going to kill the first passerby who stepped the wrong way.

Most were, thankfully, ignoring him. It was hard to see, certainly, considering Tony's vantage point was halfway through a very thick cloud familiar to Boston. Thanks to the helmet he had a damn good view of their weapon below, and the rooftop which Loki was certain Schmidt would eventually appear on, while nobody could see a hint of him if they chose to look up. Thank god for North-East weather and magic- though he wished there was a way he could have gotten up here without teleportation.

The weapon was completely inactive- if he acted _now_ he could destroy it without the slightest complication. But no, Loki wanted Schmidt in his sight, so he could kill him without any fear that he would get away again. "What's the tesseract up to?"

Thank god for technology. "It's… growing. But I'm not _seeing_ anything." Loki hissed, though it didn't even look like he was looking towards the weapon. "That thing is by no means subtle, and yet he must be using it."

True, they had taken care to make their weapon as uselessly extravagant as possible, if Schmidt was using the tesseract to power it up they should have some sign by now. "Gimme a second babe." Let's see here… ah, there- the bastard had been cautious, but there were still lights flashing below plates of metal, which from the look of it were beginning to click apart. Well. "I really do love a bird's eye view. You should clear that area down there."

"Don't be ridiculous, we would give ourselves away in a heartbeat."

"We're going to destroy the thing anyway, what's it matter? We're talking bullets and explosions, babe, people are going to die down there."

"I'm not letting him get away again." Tony muttered a quiet curse and rolled his eyes, scoffing in annoyance, waiting for him to give in and start clearing people out.

After half a long minute, however, he had to realize that Loki was serious, staring calmly and very stubbornly at whatever he had decided to give his outward attention to. _Fuck._ "JARVIS, send in a bomb threat to the nearest police department, tell 'em we've stuffed one in the university."

_"Very well, sir. And if I might alert you, five new energy signatures have just appeared in the vicinity not unfamiliar to the updated Hammerdrone. I would suggest informing Mr. Laufeyson as quickly as possible."_

God freaking _damn it._ "Loki? Hammerbots're on the way, better get ready." Maybe his tone wasn't the friendliest, but he was still more than a little frustrated at Loki's refusal to clear out the civilians. "And I'm guessing we've got about five minutes before this thing fires up." Even Loki should see it by now, the metal had split apart and was turning downward, people were stopping and staring, blinking like idiots. People were so _stupid_ about obvious sources of danger.

Forget subtlety, the device was lighting up now, spinning towards the sky and making some stereotypical science-fiction laser buzzing noise. It was so beautifully campy that Tony didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "I'm shooting this thing down."

He had the repulsors aimed and set, but Loki snapped a warning before he could set them off. _Really?_ "Don't you dare- I can't see Schmidt yet."

There were sirens in the distance, so at least the police were on their way, but the people rushing from the college were doing so far too slowly, considering their weapon was now _glowing._ How much more obvious could you get? Yet people were stopping and pointing, hardly even paying attention to the people literally running out of the building. How dense could the average human being possibly be? "What, you think he's going to come looking for show-side seats? He could be controlling that thing from down below, we can't wait for him."

"He'll be out here to greet whoever he calls down. Don't do it yet." Amidst the gathering commotion (and oh, thank god, there were the cop cars) Loki had apparently given up on unobtruse behavior, he was glaring up at the weapon, arms folded, disguise still in place.

Even Tony could feel the energy humming in the air now, and the people on the street were gaining the sense to run, whether from the imaginary bomb or the weapon. The light had gathered and was shaking the machine with building power. "Damn it Loki, we _know_ he's here, we can't wait."

"I won't let him get away again, do you hear me?!" Loki actually _growled_ at him, even though Tony could barely here him through the snap and buzz building in the comm device. Even the suit was reacting badly, vision flickering in and out. The repulsors, at least, were steady, but god damn if the rest of the world wasn't reacting to whatever was powering that thing. The clouds were bending toward it, somewhere between terrifying and hilariously B-movie. But more the former, at this point.

"That thing is going to go off!" It was getting more difficult to aim properly, but if he acted now he'd still have a steady focus on the weapon.

"I need _Schmidt_ do you understand?!" Yeah, shouting, that was smart, somebody could probably hear him if they stopped to listen, he must have been yelling from down there.

The streets were almost clear now, but some cops had stayed behind, guns aimed uselessly at the weapon. The whining hum from it was almost constant, and Tony had to raise his voice over it. If anything was going to summon a god, this was it. "So you want him to get away with this then? He's got to be in the building, we'll find him, but we have to stop this thing first! Now call it, or I'll go ahead without you."

He couldn't see much of Loki from up here, but he could practically hear him grinding his teeth. There was a long, long pause, and Tony was about ready to fire on his own- a light was beginning to burst off the weapon, and there was little doubt what that meant. But finally Loki grit out "_Fine_, do it."

Thank god. Tony still had a line of sight to the weapon and fired off on it with no further hesitation. He probably should have known better, without at least one epic failure their plans couldn't come to any kind of conclusion. The second he fired off Tony realized this, and cursed ahead of time just as the beam connected about five feet away from the weapon. The air rippled, carrying the blast in a dome-like arch around his actual target, gathering it up for something very obvious and very unwelcome. He had enough time to call off a quick warning to Loki before the thing flared, sending him launching back into a moment of darkness.

The suit fizzed out. No light, no movement, barely any sound. He felt himself crashing through at least one building, knocked his head around enough that any specifics were impossible, but had no way of knowing what other damage had been done. "Fuckin' wonderful." His voice sounded hallow, bu thankfully not slurred or any worse than winded. Not dead yet.

JARVIS was unresponsive, no surprise. The suit was too heavy to walk in without mechanics, but Tony could lift his arm at least. It was a slow and strenuous process to raise his arm to the reserve switch at his leg, though there was a worrisome grinding sound when he turned it. Almost immediately he was granted a few flickers of light, so, praising himself achingly for his fore-thinking genius, he dragged himself upright. "Loki?" No answer, through the comm or surrounding area.

Where even was he? The suit was still sluggish, booting up with the odd crackle of protesting machinery, and his body was too bruised to help it move very quickly. A miracle he'd gotten away without a heart attack after that. _"Sir- hostile forces- hos-"_ JARVIS' effort was valiant but feeble, and yet it got the point across.

Tony whipped around for defense, raised his hands and planted his feet, head turning for a sign of danger, and realized just in time to come face-on with a newly landing drone that the repulsors were still booting up.

Yeah, just a Sunday brunch all right.

**A/N: Okay, I feel I owe it to you guys to explain at least that there will be a battle, at last, not more tromping around the countryside, in the next chapter. The one after that... well, I have no idea. I have two endings in mind that are entirely different- one almost entirely angst ridden and one... well, not. Any preferences from you guys?**


	28. This Was War

**A/N: Okay, a few notes. Hope you guys like this, and I hope it isn't sloppy. Considering how long it took me to get it to you guys you deserve a good bit of work, hope I can give it. Second, remember how a long time ago we had no idea what Loki's staff was so I was stupid and brought it into this? Well I did, so he has the staff in this chapter, but it's just a weapon, no possession. Also happy ending is promised! And violence, but that's just this chapter and most of it's hinted for now. Yay violence.**

The drone and he stood facing each other for a few agonizing heartbeats, and then the thing's targeting system clicked in, and there were about ten beams of blue light flying straight for his head. He fell to the ground as quickly as he could in the suit, leaving himself mostly vulnerable to whatever the drone decided to do next. Thankfully his weapons system decided to stop being useless, and by the time he was targeted once more the repulsors were up and ready. The drone fired, and after a second's hesitation to prevent hitting the beams mid-flight Tony launched from the ground and into his bulky opponent. It didn't bother the robot much, aside from carrying it off its feet and through the adjacent wall as they went, but Tony was still human inside his armor, and when they both hit the ground and rolled he could already feel bruises and a headache forming from all the knocking about.

He had no time to go about licking his wounds though- damn bot was already aiming to fire again, and Tony barely had the time to roll on his back and kick out before it did, the repulsor catching it full in the left some scorch marks and a pretty nasty dent, but the damage didn't otherwise seem to be too great, and with his power reserves as low as they were Tony knew he was going to have to improvise to fix that.

Another blast, this time not of his own, but easier now to dodge. Still, Tony had to be careful- these buildings could still have people in them, and if he lined the bot up to shoot the wrong spot he could end up crushing half a city block under the debris. "Loki, you all right over there?" A little more ducking and weaving, and finally Tony grew impatient enough to launch into the air, followed moments later by the hammer bot. Things never were too smart. It was a lot slower than he was, so he took a winding route through the closest park JARVIS could alert him too, startling a few ducks on the way.

The only answer he got was a buzz of static, and a feeble attempt by JARVIS to explain the damaged comm system. Tony was more than done with being separated from Loki in moments of danger- unfortunate for the drone that it was the one trying to keep him away, but he couldn't really feel much pity for anything manufactured by Justin Hammer. There was a tree thick and towering every ten feet or so, all he needed to do was find one thick enough- the environmentalists would probably hate him, but he had bigger priorities than one or two plants.

A last minute swerve was all he needed. The bot was nowhere near agile enough to follow, crashing through the tree didn't destroy it, but the sound of creaking metal that the collision brought meant it had come pretty damn close. Tony turned mid-flight, only coming to a hovering halt once he had reassured himself there as enough metal ripped off that thing's body for him to get in a good shot or two. "You know, I really hope somebody's watching the security feed from this thing. Hammer, if you're listening- yeah, I'm alive. If you want to stay that way yourself, I suggest you get running."

The drone raised its hand to fire, but Tony's was faster. The repulsor shot through a gap in the armor, and with a spark and twitch both overdramatic and anticlimactic in its own way, the thing toppled to the ground and continued to smoke. He hoped it wouldn't start any fires- one tree was fine, but the whole park could be dangerous.

Well, not like he had the time to check. He gave a sarcastic salute to the fallen drone, just in case its camera were still functioning, and turned back towards the unfortunate university. That machine was still going strong, but the light had begun to shrink, normally a sign of weakness but in the case of this particular weapon probably just an indicator that it was finally focussing on its target. Tony booted what little power he could spare to the repulsors to speed himself along, tumbling low once when they died, but recovering the moment systems recovered. Not the best condition for starting out a battle, but it was too late to fix that now.

Though when he arrived the fight seemed in no need of another member- or, more correctly, so flashy and dangerous that getting close would probably be impossible. Loki was back in that gold armor, some sort of staff in hand that was launching blue blasts not only at Schmidt but anything near him, blasting holes in the street and buildings alike. There'd have been more risk of danger, but Loki was also apparently taking precautions- a ring of black fire around their dueling station would make it impossible for Schmidt to flow the coop again.

If he weren't so scared for Loki Tony would have loved this- the look on Schmidt's face was beyond priceless. He was clearly in shock by the god's reappearance and none too happy either, a dazed expression prevalent even as he avoided what he could of Loki's attacks and made his own with what seemed to be no more than a small blue gun in hand. The blue it fired was too close to the make of the drone's blasts to be reassuring though, so Tony made a note to take no needless risks with that thing.

"Lo-" No, element of surprise would do him the favor here. Tony landed as quietly as he could, though the repulsors made a few not-good sounds in protest, and took only a few steps forward before freezing. What the hell was he doing? That machine was mostly unguarded, the drones seemed to be out looking for him- worried though he was, he'd do them all a few favors by taking that thing down.

The best way to do that would probably require taking the tesseract out, which he figured was probably the stupidest thing or people with not-magic skin to attempt to do. But hey, better than just sitting there, so off he went once again, repulsors letting off a crack as he took flight that probably completely devastated his hopes for taking the element of surprise, if Loki was giving Schmidt any chance to look around. Tony landed mid-way up the machine, grabbing on to the first ledge he could spot and dragging his hand over the surface. The control panel had to be down below, but he'd seen where the power focused from the outset, whatever was keeping this running was waiting in here somewhere-

The weapon shook, and Tony only managed to keep one hand latched on, nearly blown off. He cursed more than once and moved to right himself, continuing his task as soon as the shaking had ceased. Not good, couldn't be more than a minute left.

"Come on, come on..." Of course it wouldn't be easy to find, couldn't Schmidt miss out on _one_ little damn detail? The machine creaked, and Tony latched one once more, but this time to some advantage- the suit was pathetically fighting to function, and the screen had prevailed enough that it was picking up heat signatures, one much greater than the others not too far from his hand. "Ah, JARVIS, I love you, did you know that?"

A little weak crackling was his only response. The spot took a little contortion to get to, and a lot of precarious balancing, but Tony managed to hold himself steady enough that he could begin to burn a ring around the warm circle within the machine. Sucks the thing weren't made of a battery or something, be so much easier if he could just punch through it. What was the fun of being a superhero if he had to break things slowly?

The metal fell away in a perfect little circle, more than enough room for Tony to reach his hand in, groping for the source of the blue light that had begun pouring out. Down below something crashed and creaked, and somebody- he was too far up to guess who- grunted in pain. Loki, or Schmidt? He was almost tempted to check, but his hand felt like it was going to melt off, and he hadn't even grabbed the tesseract. No need to drag this out.

Tony had been expecting something dangerous, but his preparations for a fight, of whatever sort, didn't do him any good- the moment his glove wrapped around the tesseract his body went rigid within the suit, which relaxed what little useful tension it had been holding, giving up his grip on both the tower and the power source within.

"Shit-!" Tony shouted, or at least attempted to. His jaw wasn't responding either, aside from small and painful spasms of muscle whenever he tried to force movement. Which was actually quite a lot, considering a second later he was rushing towards solid concrete with no more protection than a metal death trap.

He couldn't even flex his hand to try sparking the suit up manually- he couldn't even _breathe_, though that didn't really register until his lungs began to burn because of it. The luxury of shutting his eyes wasn;t available either, and so Tony watched not quite in slow motion as the tower grew longer above him, and could do nothing to help himself but wonder if Loki would be able to move in time to stop him before he fell.

And long before he hit the ground- about twenty feet yet, if he was calculating right (and he was pretty sure he was, Tony being Tony after all)- something probably harder than the concrete collided with his right side and knocked away what little wind he had left. Tony would have cursed again had he been able, but even the thought of it never crossed his mind. In fact, it was close to a minute before he had any thought at all.

He was awake before he realized he had fallen unconscious, about half a minute before he could even attribute the awful gasping noise around him to his own breathing. Fuck. His chest was burning, not from air alone. Fucking fuck. "Who- agh, _god_- whose-?"

"Steady, mortal, do not do yourself further harm. Rest here and you will be safe." A voice replied, not far from his side. Tony blinked the blur away from his vision and sat quickly upright, only to be held from moving by a strong pressure, gentle enough, at his chest.

Well, whatever, he had a view enough of the one holding him down- huge, blond, and dressed like something out of a bad production of "Julius Caesar". "Oh shit, you're Thor. No, you can't be here, he'll- agh, dammit..."

"You know my name?" Thor (it had to be Thor, he fit the description Loki had given perfectly) stared at him in a brief flash of surprise, but quickly recovered. "You should not speak, those are not injuries of your world. Remain where you are, I have business to take care of, I will return when I am done."

That wasn't a good look, that was a very angry look that Tony didn't like seeing aimed off towards where Loki and Schmidt had been fighting. Had, because Thor's arrival had brought quite the boom with it, and it looked like they'd both been knocked back somewhere. Tony only hoped Schmidt had got the worst of it- unlikely, since he could see him, standing up near the ruins of some telephone pole and dusting himself off with a bitter look, but Loki was out of sight.  
>"No, no- you stay here, listen, that guy wants to-"<p>

"I know what he wants, and he will not have it. Do not interfere, you will only wound yourself further."

Tony continued to babble, though even with his mask torn off- when had that happened?- and half the chestplate torn -wonderful, couldn't Asgardians ever be gentle? - the suit was still too heavy for him to sit up and actually pull Thor back. So it was easy for the god to ignore him, and Tony was forced to watch him grab his hammer from where it lay beside them both and fly- actually _fly_- off to the fight, apparently unaware that he was wanted nowhere near it.

VVV

There were far too many trees in this infernal place to call it a city- Loki had nearly crashed through one, missing it (and an awful headache) by a third of an inch, and fallen straight into the mud. If not for his magic his armor would have been awful by the time he was upright, and even then he still had his own bruising to deal with. But more than anything aesthetic or physical Loki had somewhat cosmic problems on mind- Thor.

He had seen that light and sensed that magic, his so-called brother was here on earth. Schmidt had succeeded to summon his god, he of course had no means of controlling the blithering brat, but Loki's drive for movement was gone from him long after he had righted himself. Thor. After all he'd endured, and how hard he'd fought, the Thunderer had still made it to Midgard. If it would not reveal him- Loki had failed, but he still might have revenge yet- he would have screamed in blind rage, not a common outlet for him. After all his _work_!

Loki was breathing harshly in his anger, and when he took the time to recover he was forced to think as well. No need to panic yet. Schmidt was strong, though Thor would probably finish him off, he may get in a blow or two with genuine damage in the end. Enough, if he was lucky, for Loki to make his mood once they had finished their squabbling.

It was far from a wonderful plan but it was one he was willing to accept. Walking slowly was no great effort, it hurt simply to move his legs by this point, but Loki took the added care to remain as quiet as possible as he went along, crouched as low as he safely could manage and breathing just barely. He hesitated long enough only to remove his helmet- he did love it, yet he had to admit his preferred armor was a tad bit... ostentatious.

Thor would likely be looking for him, and Loki did not intend to be easily found. It was of course easy to remain concealed, thanks to this pointless arrangement of foliage the humans had set into their city, yet once he was close enough to watch for his opening it was clear that any one misstep would give him away. Luckily it was easier to hear than to see- Thor had never been able to boast a mild manner.

"Do not waste your words on me, mortal- I have not come to play your pawn," Thor was responding, though to what Loki had not heard. Not difficult to guess, knowing Schmidt. "You have crimes to pay for, no slaves to win. Fight or lay where you are, it makes little difference to me."

Hm, well, that _was_ unusual. Thor was usually such a fool about honor, perhaps he had actually grown intelligent in Loki's absence. "I have no intentions of fighting you, Thunderer. And neither do I fear you- I had hoped you would cooperate, but I am willing to improvise."  
>At the sound of a crash Loki dared to peek his head out. Schmidt's confidence was far from founded it seemed, for Thor already had the man pinned, a circle of cracks and rubble about him showing he had hit him hard against the building before keeping him there.<p>

"I am in no mood for banter, mortal," Thor growled, and though Loki could only see the back of his head it was easy to imagine a feral snarl. The prince often became doggish when he was in a foul mood. "Were I able I would bring you to Asgard to face our torture chambers, but I doubt my patience will hold so long."

Curious, Loki moved closer just minutely- it was the rare thing that had Thor _this_ riled up. "How pleasantly barbaric of you. Unfortunately, I have no intentions of accepting your punishments."  
>The two must have gotten to a brief fight, though Loki considered such a word may be an exaggeration, for it was a moment before anyone spoke again, and this time there was a minute touch of strain in Thor's voice. "Do not think you can escape me, you may have your tricks but you are no match for an Asgardian."<p>

"Your confidence is outstanding." Another quick look, then back down. The two were facing each other, and Schmidt's hand was lurking near his gun, hidden from Thor's view. No ordinary pistol either, Loki had to admit- his shoulder was not bleeding, but there was a large patch without skin where it ought to be. "Do you think I would have brought you here had I anything to fear? I have methods- such a shame, though, that I will have to resort to them."

"I know your 'methods', mortal. You are not so protected on this earth as you believe- I swear you will pay tenfold for every wound my brother felt at your hand!"

Brother? What- no, Thor couldn't possibly still insist on that, Odin must have told him by now that they were not related. Loki glanced once more, but Thor seemed genuine serious, a blend of anger and ache that he would not have the skill or intelligence to duplicate. Heimdall must have shown him, or explained. Loki had been doing his best to keep hidden from the old fool, but on Schmidt's table his defenses must have failed him.

The man of the hour seemed to believe this likelihood even less than Loki did. "Ah, but if I caught the Trickster how can you think yourself so far from my grasp? I do not go into battle lightly."

"I do not know how you captured Loki, but I am sure it was not by any fair means. Whatever you believe, know this- I thought my brother dead before, to see him alive..." Loki hid his face again at this, unwilling to see Thor's expression during such talk. "You are the reason I have lost him again. That is a mistake you cannot undo."

Thor thought him dead once more? Heimdall must not have seen him leave the room, only thought he had died in it. Or else on hearing such news his idiotic brother had left to hear no more, or perhaps... it mattered not. Loki was again thought dead by Thor at least, an advantage he knew the tricks of since seeing that shock on Schmidt's face when he first re-appeared. He had to use that, if he could.

But Schmidt he had not counted on- the man laughed in a way that paused Thor in his wrath, and Loki cursed silently. Even the thunderer was not too stupid to recognize the signs of a fight, he would at least consider the truth of it if Schmidt spoke his piece. "It seems misinformation is common even in the gods. The Liesmith has tricked us both, he is alive yet. A shame too."  
>"Do not mock me." Oh, how wonderful, Thor really was a fool. "I will not be driven by more false hopes- you killed my brother, I have nothing more to hear from you."<p>

A crack of thunder or the swing of mjolnir- it was hard to distinguish one sound from the other, yet either could be possible. Loki heard nothing but fighting after that, and only once he was sure things were in full swing could he look upright, keeping as well hidden as possible. Thor rarely noticed the outside world when he was in his battles, but it was no chance he wished to take.

As expected, Schmidt's fight was more an effort to stave off Thor with dignity than any offensive maneuver. He seemed fairly calm, though it could only have been minutes before that hammer met his skull. Clearly there was some other plan... ah, of course. Loki fell to the ground and dove under the cover of one of those tiny, pointless bushes the mortals kept about. A few moments later and a drone flew by a little ways off- not gunning for him, but certainly in a position where it would have noticed had he been upright. Thor was too busy grappling with Schmidt- the man was strong, clearly, and in much cooler head than the thunderer, freer to focus on the fight and his own attacks, which actually gained him the opportunity to connect a few- and anyway never really attentive to such things. The robot could be on him in a second and he'd hardly have the mind to notice.

Yet even as Loki smirked and prepared to watch, he felt unease build close behind. If the drone was here, it must have come from some other target, as Schmidt clearly had no way to call it. Thor and the human were not quite easy to access, and the robot was waiting almost intelligently for a chance, clearly with time to spare. Not here on a rush command of any sort, or even scouting- it could have called, made an order, but if it had accomplished its last task there would be no need to hurry.

Hadn't those machines gone after Tony? But this one was not damaged-he had fallen, perhaps... No. He could hardly be dead, wasn't the whole point of ridiculous things like love that if one was harmed the other would know? He could be hurt, lying somewhere bleeding, or dying from his heart, and here Loki was hiding in the shadows. If Tony, _his_ Tony, died just because of some grudge he hardly knew what he would do with himself.

These things needed to be destroyed, the quicker the better, that Loki might find Tony and heal any wounds he sported. "Thor!" The bush was easy to hop over, and without his cover all attention found him in a moment.

Luckily for him the drone was quickest to react, and its rush towards him only made the blast from his staff all the more effective. A chunk of metal flying near his head was the only risk Loki took from that particular enemy. Thor wasn't so fast- he seemed to be doubting his own sight, and rather than spark the fight he'd seen growing in his once-time brother Loki had to watch it melt into infuriating shock, mjolnir half-lowered at the thunderer's side.

"Brother, you're-"

"No time for that now, the man!" Perhaps things were going a little too quickly for Thor's less than speedy mind to handle, but the familiar voice seemed to have some effect at least. Thor turned with mjolnir raised, and as Schmidt drew his gun threw the hammer into the mortal's chest.

It knocked him back a satisfying amount, but more likely than not left him alive all the same. But it gave them time. Loki lowered his spear for now, looking around frantically for some familiar sign of red and gold, but Thor jogged to his side, hands clamping down on his shoulders. Loki flinched, but the other seemed oblivious to his dislike, grabbing him a little too tightly as if to ensure he was really there, really solid and alive. Petty sentiment and unwelcome even when Loki was whole- with the wounds to his shoulders such things were outright painful.

"Loki... how did you survive? I saw you die," Thor wondered in a voice too delighted to be broken, though Loki could sense an almost painful relief in the words. Asgardians were not afraid of tears, but he hoped Thor weren't so happy as that- he was barely holding back his anger for the fool as it was. "I thought I had lost you again."

Again? As if he'd ever been found- or perhaps he had, but not by Thor. "Please do not bother me with such pointless details now. There are more of those machines about, you need to find them and do away with them. Leave the mortal to me, understand?"

Battle was a language Thor would always speak. Mjolnir was tight in hand even before he had finished, and though he was still holding back some obviously conflicting and unwelcome emotions Thor nodded without complaint. "I will find them, but you must promise to be here once I return."

"Very well, just go!" Loki snarled, perhaps viciously enough to actually earn a normal response from Thor. He stared, looking hurt for a moment, but was off once it was demanded one time more, leaving Loki to his own business. No time to shuffle about, Tony was somewhere, possibly in danger, and revenge had to come second to that.

VVV

It was a long time before Tony could move, and all through his struggles to strip off his ruined suit he had to endure the uncertain sounds of battle from just too far off. His head was still fuzzy after all, he could tell people were speaking and yelling but not who or what about- it could be Loki cursing Thor, or either of them in pain, or just a lot of nothing. Whatever the case it was also extremely distracting, and Tony's efforts were halfway futile because of it.

But the armor came off, and his trembling muscles dragged him to his feet. Tony was pretty sure the insides of his legs had turned to some sort of liquid, there was no other way it could be this difficult just to walk. A single step had him half collapsing, even with the help of the building Thor had hidden him by. But by now Tony was a bit of an expert in moving like a cripple, so he made some pretty steady progress.

Still, by the time he made it to the scene of the action, things were in a bit of an uproar. He wasn't even sure where to look- Thor was demolishing some Hammerdrones not too far off, and Tony had to duck to avoid the ruins of one's head, but Loki was far still, and his fight with Schmidt didn't seem to be going so well.

He was still hurt, it was half a miracle he could even _move_ with what had happened to his stomach, fighting like this was no good. Tony wanted to call out, but his throat was still mostly unresponsive, and when he tried to get closer quicker he only managed to trip over a block of rubble. Good thing, too, as the wall he'd just been next to was half destroyed a second later, and Thor didn't notice who he'd almost killed until the risk had passed.

"You, what are you doing here? I told you to run." Loki was godlike in his own way, but Tony had to admit that Thor really had the job down pat- even he couldn't help admitting he looked a little intimidating, though that might have been because he was carrying a giant hammer and Tony was lying on his ass.

"Yeah, see, I'm not the best at following orders, priorities and all that." Standing was no good, but when Thor gave him a hand he managed it more or less fine, but immediately brushed off and tried again to hurry forward.

Schmidt's gun seemed to be gone, but he'd snatched up a metal pipe somewhere, and Loki didn't look all that comfortable with the staff he was using to defend himself from it. Granted the staff was a lot more dangerous, but Loki was also a lot more exhausted. What was Thor doing here, when his brother was over there?

A blast near their heads was answer enough. Ah, right, hammerdrones. Thor gave him a quick and useless warning then shot off to fight, yet again leaving Tony alone in his confusion. There weren't many of those bots hanging around, he'd have to trust Thor could deal with them alone. Not like he'd be a genuine help even if he tried. Tony grabbed for the nearest wall just in time to keep on his feet, and after testing his balance continued his valiant hobble towards the battling superhumans.

Loki and Schmidt were moving almost impossibly fast, but he could see when a blow met. Schmidt was at least taking the most of those, and it looked like Loki was gaining the upper hand. That spear was cutting skin (or mask, that must've looked pretty weird from where Loki was, but Tony was too far off to tell) and drawing blood, while the bar left bruises but not much else, and Tony actually let out a sigh of relief when Loki not only dodged a blow but hooked his leg behind Schmidt's foot and blasted the man against the ground in one movement.

Loki was definitely doing well- at least, until the pipe was shoved through the lower left half of his stomach.

Tony wasn't sure if his shout or Loki's scream drew Thor's attention, but the effect was more or less the same. He let out his own cry, this one more of rage and worry than Tony's protective fear, and with a few enraged swings had the last bot in rubble at his feet. This Tony only recognized in passing- he was running, or as close to running as he could, towards Loki with no attention to spare. There was a lot of blood, even visible from here, and now it was Loki on the ground, Schmidt rising cautiously above him, after searching for his gun of course, the glint of it clear in his hand.

Loki must have seen it just as well, for he began to move backward now, shaking his head in a way that was probably instinctual. Tony could hear and see little, but he didn't need to imagine Loki's fear- he'd heard it before, when Schmidt had peeled the skin off his stomach. "Loki!"  
>He and Thor mingled voices, but one had the obvious effect. Tony was growing dizzy himself, but he could see the god rush forward, probably about the fly over for his brother's aid, but also saw him freeze, hammer raised and a look of bafflement on his face. Tony wanted to grab him by the shoulders and shake him until the recoil knocked that hammer into something. "What are you doing? Go over there!"<p>

Thor didn't even look at him. Loki meanwhile had come up short, and Schmidt was hovering above him, gun aimed for a clear shot to the head, mouth moving with some taunt Tony couldn't distinguish. He shouted a warning that either went ignored or unheard, Loki flinched and looked away, and Schmidt dropped his gun as something bashed into the side of his head.

Tony should have expected this, but he hardly knew magic even after all this time. The Loki on the ground flickered out of view, the pole through his stomach suddenly in the hands of the real Loki, who stood behind the man he had just struck with one arm pressed over his bleeding stomach. Schmidt staggered, but before he could recover mjolnir whizzed past Tony and hit him clean in the chest, launching the bastard back a good ten feet.

Tony would have cheered if he weren't so confused. Loki was giving him no time for explanations though, with Schmidt down he had a chance to move, and it was obvious he wasn't going to waste it. The god was too quick to bother with even turning back to them, and Tony had just enough time to realize what Loki was going to do and wonder if he could actually do it before shutting his eyes.

It wasn't that he had a thing against violence- he'd killed plenty, people he'd known and people he hadn't- or blood or any of that, more that he didn't really want the image in his head of Loki beating somebody to death with a metal pipe. Or, rather, that he didn't want the image of him _enjoying_ it, and he knew Loki would find few things less entertaining, after all they'd dealt with.  
>So though he heard Thor step towards his brother of sorts Tony waited it out with his eyes shut until he was more or less sure it was safe to do otherwise. That being when a familiar pair of arms- and a familiar and extremely disgusting scent of blood- wrapped around him, and an exhausted weight slumped against his own.<p>

Tony could see blood more than skin when he looked to Loki, though at this point it was hard to tell whose it was except for the stuff soaking his stomach, so thick on the fabric that it had thoroughly stained Tony's even through brief contact. "Shit, Loki, you're not supposed to just rip that thing out- okay, come on, we need pressure on that."

"Don't worry so much," Loki scoffed with a slur that drew a worried look even from Thor. The god had come up with a hand on Loki's back, and Tony took advantage of the help to swing one of his boyfriend's half-limp arms over his shoulder, since it was clear he stood little chance of standing otherwise. The bloodloss must have been worse than the pain, because Loki only gave a quiet laugh at this and tried to kiss Tony, uncoordinated and exhausted. He mostly just ended up failing, head falling in a lull against Tony's cheek and breath coming in a contented little purr. "Look, we won, and you're not dead. It's wonderful, isn't it? I think so. I like it. Hold still-"

Another attempt at a kiss, this time barely even a movement. Tony staggered, trying to support Loki's weight, and threw Thor a fearful look. "He needs help. Can you get us to a doctor?"

"He needs the healers, no mortal can fix these wounds." Thor was holding most of Loki's weight, which made it difficult to get a good look at his injuries, but that ddidn't stop him from trying. He looked as worried as Tony felt. "I will bring him home-"

"Home? I have to get home, got to feed the cat..."

"That's nice darling, shut up. He's not going back there. If you bring him to that place, I'll never see him again." It sounded selfish, and maybe it was- but Tony couldn't bear that thought. Asgard would not give up their prince again.

"He will die if he remains!"

"He's not going, at least not alone!" Tony's yelling wasn't too firm, when he could barely stand, but Loki gave a little grunt of pain and slumped further against him, which made the point well enough. "Bring me with you. I know him, I what happened. I'm not leaving him."

Things were moving too quickly for Tony to even consider the gravity of what he was asking, but Thor knew well enough. He knew, and he watched Tony for a long moment, but turned to his brother- half conscious and still trying to coordinate himself enough to kiss Tony, despite usually just nudging his cheek on the attempt- and something passed through his mind that made the choice clear enough.

"Very well. I do not know who you are to my brother, mortal, but I beg you to do what you can for his sake. Come, Asgard waits."

**A/N:If things seemed rush, that's because they are. Kind of. Everything is going really fast in this bit- while Loki winds down in the next chapter the story will too, so anything unclear or seemingly incomplete'll be fleshed out then. **

**Also, next one may be the last, but if so it'll be loooong. I'm not planning a sequel yet- this thing is going on AO3 with a ton of revision and added/altered parts as soon as I finish it on here- but I might. For now though I'll be focusing on Myosotis, revising this, and an AU I haven't posted yet (for obvious reasons, it takes me long enough to update as it is). Hopefully I won't make you wait for the next one too long, sorry about all these delays.**


	29. Homecoming

**A/N: So, a bit of an explanation folks. I sat down at my computer way too many months ago, all hyped up and ready to type the final chapter of this story, under an alternate and happier ending than I had once planned. I opened google docs, set up my coffee, and in four hours, wrote two sentences.**

**I had a vague idea about what I wanted for this more pleasant ending, but it didn't work in execution. I wrote and rewrote and struggled constantly, and eventually, this came out. So this chapter was very, very difficult to write, because I don't even know. But I apologize for the horrible delay, and hope this was to people's satisfaction. It might be cheesy, all over the place, and out of tone, and I don't really know how I feel about it.**

**There might be an epilogue, but for now I'll focus on updating, editing, and submitting to AO3. It'll be under the same name as I fix it up and post it, so check things out there if you like. I'll probably use a different ending, maybe not so angsty as the original intending, but probably not this, or at least longer.**

Tony didn't get to learn much of what had happened until almost a day later. Traveling to Asgard had been quick and convenient, free even of security checks and overweight flight attendants, since they were off the ground within seconds of Thor getting his hands on Schmidt's pride and joy. Tony had wondered in a distracted way how angry SHIELD would be about losing the tesseract, but it was around then that Loki had fainted dead away and he'd nearly collapsed against the effort of holding the god upright. Other than that the transport was easy, but the arrival... not so much.

Interplanetary politics were not the sort of thing Tony was capable of giving a shit about while he was so worried about Loki's health, but the rest of Asgard had not shared his priorities. In fact, if not for Thor's support he was pretty sure he and Loki both would have been sent down to Earth in as poor physical states as the warriors could manage to leave them, if they were lucky enough to dodge a dungeon stay. The whole mortal on Asgard thing did not sit too well with most folk, apparently, but even that seemed forgivable by most of the people he and Thor had to deal with on their way. What was not, however, was saving Loki's life. Thor had let him come up because he wanted to save his brother, and most of them were desperate to kick him out because they wanted to see him die.

That had not gone over well, exactly. Apparently gods didn't take too well to having a mostly physically-inept mortal insult their sense of morality, intelligence, and (often enough) personal hygiene. The arguments were dull memories, vague senses of unpleasant feeling and danger that Thor had, luckily, gotten him out of each time. Not too hard, really, since he was half unconscious himself before long, and his retorts became the sort of unintelligible slurring that resulted in confusion or pity, more than anger, from whoever he was yelling at. His damage, though, was nothing next to Loki's, and all the same Tony had been half-asleep, ever since Thor had left to deal with his dad, and undergoing pampering by attractive nurses. Or healers, as they demanded they be called, who used more magic than medicine and forced him to drink poultices that tasted like they probably contained newt eye and put him asleep before he could even babble out any protest.

By the time he had been woken up his chest had felt much better, but Loki was showing no visible improvement, and none of the healers would tell him a damn thing. So despite their orders against it Tony had sat by Loki's bed and talked to his sleeping form about anything that came to mind, most of which he forgot fairly quickly. His voice did enough for Loki's nervous groans of pain that he was allowed to keep it up, at least until Thor finally returned and Tony was, at long last, given a decent explanation.

What Thor claimed was most important, for the moment, was that Odin was allowing Tony's presence at Heimdall's recommendation, for whatever length of time it took Loki to recover. After that he would not say, but Tony did his best to reassure himself that there was no way Loki would consent to staying here anyway, if he could help it. Reassuring himself that Odin would give his "son" any choice in the matter, however, wasn't so easy.

Still, Tony found it easier to concentrate on what Thor considered minor news in comparison. They didn't actually know if Schmidt was alive or dead, just that he had been in very bad states by the time Thor managed to calm Loki enough to assure him that Tony was alive and almost well, the opposite of which he had apparently been fearing. That had been enough to drag him away, and with Loki too relieved and Thor too worried to confirm anything nobody had given much thought to whether or not Schmidt was breathing.

After a slightly longer bit of exposition on Tony's part they both agreed that they wouldn't be telling any of that to Loki, when he woke up. With any luck SHIELD would be smart enough to kill the guy if Loki hadn't already, when they arrived and found him lying there- assuming of course nobody from Hydra popped in to take him off to safety first. Fury was usually good at avoiding that sort of mess, though, and Tony had no way of knowing until he returned to earth (where a very angry government agency and very baffled media would no doubt be waiting to confront him), so his worries were more for what would happen if Schmidt did find his way back into their lives somehow. Loki would not respond very well to that, and his anger would probably be doubled by the fact that they hadn't told him there was any chance of Schmidt being alive in the first place.

But if they did? He'd obsess over it, and after everything Tony just wanted a damn moment of _peace_ for Loki. He could risk a talking-to in the future if it meant giving him a little relief. This was the first time he had seen the god looking really relaxed in a long, long time, even if he was thoroughly unconscious, thanks to the healers' attentions. Normally the bar through Loki's stomach wouldn't have taken more than a crumbled rock to heal, according to Thor, but with all the abuse leading up to that, internal and external, the healers couldn't risk it. Apparently there was some risk of stitching the wrong parts together, or something, if more than one area was damaged- not a very nice image.

But Loki was healing, so Tony didn't worry too much. He wondered if he even _could_ have worried- he was in another planet, sitting next to the god of thunder in a room where recovery came at the whim of magic. None of it felt real. He couldn't even be impressed with the fact that he was _on another planet_, because he'd only (coherently) seen one room of it, and the most godly person he had met so far was Thor. And it was really difficult to be in awe of somebody after their brother has told you stories of when said someone was a child and tried to make himself a beard out mashed potatoes.

Though being so freaking tall did give the god a little boost in that department. Tony hadn't been able to get a good, thoughtful look at the guy until he'd come in for this talk, and though they were both plenty big enough he couldn't spot a single similarity between Thor and Loki. The former was probably perfectly willing to believe what their father had told them about being brothers, but the Loki that Tony knew wouldn't be so accepting. He was critical, thoughtful, suspicious- had he wanted so badly to belong amongst these people he was nothing like that he would ignore even such obvious signs? He felt a pang of sadness at even the thought, made all the worse by Thor's silence, and the annoyingly caring way in which he watched Loki.

Tony didn't know why, but he wished Thor would leave. He liked the god, and he didn't want to. He wanted to understand why Loki hated him so much, or to at least stand beside him in that hatred, but talking with him wasn't making that easy. Then Thor opened his mouth, and he braced himself not to like anything that was about to be said. "I do not wish to... intrude-"

"Generally means an intrusion's coming up, so go ahead."

"We thought my brother dead all these months. Yet now I find he was with a mortal, and made no attempt to contact his home. Now that we are assured of his safety, I would like to know what has happened." Thor didn't once look away from Loki as he spoke, which Tony was almost grateful for. His turn to tell some stories, then?

No, he didn't like the sound of that. "Later. I get the feeling you aren't the only one who's going to be asking that, big guy, so let's save it for all at once, yeah?"

"I understand. But I assume there are things you will not tell my father or his court, and I would like to know all you are willing to speak of," Thor explained without a hitch, in such a fancy manner that Tony almost replied in the same way.

But he checked himself to silence in time, even gathered the state of mind to think the request over. There was so much he didn't want to say, and even more Loki would never forgive him for mentioning, but there were things Odin didn't need to know about that might give Thor some comfort. Tony could understand the need for a little closure. "I found him when he hit the ground. He was in a pretty bad shape, but I patched 'im up after awhile. He stuck around- guess I was just too pretty to leave."

"Pretty?" Thor cast a baffled look at Tony's beard, and despite everything he found he had to laugh at that.

"Yeah, pretty, can't you tell? I rock it in a dress 'n heels, prom queen and everything."

"I... do not understand."

"You don't need to. So, anyway, he attracted some unwanted attention, and was kind of drafted. Willingly. I think if it were unwilling there'd be a lot of "boom" and dead people. Well there were anyway, but far as I know only people who deserved it. Like the guy who called you down." Tony knew his answer was incomplete and probably confusing, bits of indecipherable or useless information that were all he felt willing to share. "He was kind of a… sore spot, with Loki, like I said. Tried to kill me, tortured him, you get the idea?"

"More than I once may have. I never took my brother's concerns to heart when we were younger, it was only recently… He always let his hatred brew, so that none of us noticed it if we did not wish to. I think he became all the more vengeful because of it." Thor's voice was wearier than Tony would have thought it capable of growing- which was, to say, not actually all that much, but he could see a sort of pain in the god's eyes and glanced away, uncomfortable, to watch the almost-steady rise and fall of Loki's chest. "You told me before about your hunt for that man, how it consumed him. I fear he will never escape from that. Be it that mortal, his blood, or some other threat, there is always some madness he will cling to. I should have thought if there were anyone he could look at so fondly as he did you there would be no reason to worry, but it happened all the same."

"Of course it did. I may be awesome, but I'm no panacea, Rocky. Sleeping with me does wonders for plenty of things, but mental trauma probably isn't included. In fact, asking most of the ladies I've been with it may actually be a symptom, but that's beside the point. He… he needs-" Something. Tony let out a sigh and a shrug, knowing that no matter how much time he'd spent in Loki's company he could hardly be called an expert in the god's psyche. "What'd your dad say? If he thinks he's going to lock him up-"

"No. My father is as happy as I to see Loki home. There are those calling for his blood, but they will not have it. He will be punished I do not doubt, but not in any terrible way." Was it Tony's imagination, or did Thor's voice waver on that promise?

No, it was paranoia, nothing else. Thor's look was determined and confident, and Tony was beginning to get the idea that if this guy were so fixed on something he'd get it one way or another. So Loki wouldn't be arrested, or tortured. Not like Tony would have allowed it, not after everything else he had seen and heard the god endure. He just wished he'd gotten a little more personal payback with Schmidt- maybe he'd just take his frustration out on Hammer when they finally got things settled down. SHIELD had probably found him by now, after all, and as far as Tony cared he was as much to blame in this as the master-mind.

A few nurses bustled by, passing through the door with just enough of a gap for Tony to see the vague outline of somebody standing by. Whether they were trying to get in or not he couldn't tell- but he was more interested in figuring out if they were friendly or malicious, which the nurse prevented by shutting the door as she cleared the room. "So what's going to happen?"

"Father will speak to you and Loki privately, and then likely in the royal court. My brother's crime was complicated, but the people will be interested in it all the same. Though I think it is your presence that intrigues them the most. There is much resentment for how easily you were allowed passage into our realm," Thor begrudged, though with a light enough tone that Tony figured he wasn't too upset over all the political tape he must have been cutting through while the others had been passed out cold.

Though he was still surprised, in all honesty, that he hadn't been sent home or attacked for his audacious presence in this big fancy place yet. Did he have Thor to thank for that, or was Odin just worried what Loki would do if he didn't have Tony around to keep him calm? "Yeah well, always wanted to visit this place. Just wish it hadn't taken all this to do it."

How close had Loki been to dying? A few minutes, said the healers, or a few inches further to the right from that pipe, or… or a lot of things. Tony knew any human would be long gone, but it was still strange to see even this much fragility on a god, to see Loki paler than usual under the eerie glow of magic keeping him stable.

Thor seemed almost used to the sight, even if he was no less worried. "My father will wish for Loki to remain here, on Asgard. And he will not permit a mortal to remain."

"Loki wants to come back with me, I won't stop him," Tony scoffed with indifference he hardly felt. There was no way for him to stay here, but would Loki want to come back with him? Would they _let_ him come back?

"I will admit that I prefer my father's will in this case. I would not like to lose Loki again- with the tesseract we can return to earth when necessary, but visiting would hardly be easy. Even if there were any reason for a Prince to abandon his home for so long." Thor didn't sound happy to say it, and no wonder- if Tony hadn't been thinking the same thing he probably wouldn't have responded to well to that. He was more than a little tempted to retort anyway, but Thor was one of the only guys he had on his side up here, and contrary to popular belief he was not quite idiot enough to ruin that. "But I do not want to ruin whatever happiness he has found."

"My lord?" A girl's head peeked through the door, a thin face framed in fluffy blond hair. She looked about sixteen, but Tony knew she was much older than he was. "Your mother would like to speak with you. Shall I tell her you are occupied?"

"Mother?" Thor frowned, but when Tony waved him on he nodded, moving to stand with a brief look toward Loki. "No, I will speak with her. I will not be long, Anthony."

"Take your time, Goldilocks. Bears won't be awake for awhile yet."

Thor's bemused expression didn't last so long as it had during their first few conversations, which was probably a sign that the Asgardian was used to being out of the loop where crazy mortals were concerned. "If he wakes, lock the door. He will not want any other company."

Including, no doubt, Thor himself; whose look of guilty pain was not missed even by Tony, who had no need to wonder at the story behind it. Without a doubt the god's perfect version of all this would allow him to rush to his brother with apologies and smiles and plenty of far-gone sibling normality, when it was more likely he would only get a heavy dose of hatred if he so much as approached Loki while the god was fully conscious.

Some selfish-and admittedly large- part of Tony was happy about that; he wasn't going to argue anything that let him have Loki all to himself for awhile. Of course, he knew it would be better for the both of them to meet some sort of reconciliation, but he also knew that the moment, whatever it would be, was going to be a long time in coming. So he waved in a sort of bored manner at Thor's retreating form, watched for the door to swing shut with more of a bang than a click, and turned immediately back to Loki, half expecting to see him spring upright now that the other was out of the room.

It was somehow disappointing when he only continued to sleep, his chest following an unsteady cadence of sharp and shallow breaths. Recalling the ease from before, Tony wondered if Loki were troubled- through pain, nightmares? Both were familiar enough. "Easy there, big guy. If you go freaking out I don't think I'll be much use. So try not to convulse or anything."

There was no reply, not even the usual half-grunt the god usually gave when Tony talked to him while he slept. "You know, it's rude to ignore people. You should really pay attention more, what if somebody comes praying to you to save their puppy or something and you're too busy sleeping? That would be lame."

Loki's breathing was unchanged, and Tony fell back against his own bed with an exaggerated sigh. He wanted the god to wake up, and he didn't. Talking to him, knowing he was okay, finally being able to relax without the impending doom of SHIELD or Hydra were all wonderful futures. But his response to his surroundings, the meeting with Odin, his decision about whether to stay or go- Tony saw nothing good to anticipate in any of that. He knew down on earth everything would be a mess, that even if he did return with Loki at his side the world would have to know his boyfriend wasn't just some mechanically gifted guy from England, that Tony Stark could not have been alive without the help of a few supernatural talents. He probably could even have convinced them he'd pulled another Afghanistan, but the possibility of nobody getting that fight on their phone and sending it for the whole wide world to know was... slim.

Ah, well, SHIELD could come up with some BS excuse and Tony could ruin it, as always. Loki would probably be more than happy to make his abilities public knowledge- he'd complained often enough about arrogant mortals and their ignorance. So long as he didn't start blasting fireballs at people.

God, it was fucked up how fondly he thought of that image. Not the burning people alive part, no wat, but the idea of Loki up and well, his usual half-way-to-evil self. Or anything, really, other than the mentally damning anger of the last week and the absolute nothingness now.

Then Tony grinned, and he was glad nobody was around to see. He'd finally found his way not only to a new planet but an entirely different realm of reality, and he was doing the exact same thing he'd done on earth: playing nursemaid for Loki. Pepper was never going to believe it, if she ever stopped yelling at him enough to even listen to the story.

And there went the grin. Tony wasn't sure if he was imagining their next meeting with more trepidation or guilt, but he knew both were there in some almost-equal measurement. He'd basically disappeared on her- no warning, no explanation, and he wasn't even on the same planet this time, so there was no way she could count on somebody finding him and bringing him back. This was going to be hell to explain. Worth it, of course, but still. Maybe he could just hide in another cave until she became more worried than angry and decided _not_ to kill him when he came home.

There was a soft sound outside the door, something like a whisper struggling not to become full voice, and Tony realized with some surprise that Thor and his guest were waiting just in the hall. Or else someone else was hiding at the door. He listened and waited, but couldn't tell one voice from the other or decide if there was one person, two, or however many creating the noise. "Guessing you wouldn't fancy any more guests?"

No answer. Tony reached out and took Loki's hand, expecting nothing but getting a reflexive squeeze that became a grasp, stubborn and surprisingly strong. Tony tugged experimentally, found he was more or less trapped in the god's grip, and resigned himself to one-armed activities for the time being. Really... close by one-armed activities. Which meant picking up his cup of water, turning it slightly, and putting it back down. Absolutely riveting.

More whispering, a little louder now and then a lot quieter, settling at an inaudible medium that droned at the back of Tony's mind for a few minutes. He tensed, expecting anger and wondering if Thor could hold off anybody who'd come to do Loki harm, then relaxed both as he realized that yeah, he definitely could, and that the voices were more excited than malicious.

But for now they were staying outside, and Tony wasn't letting anyone in until Loki gave him permission to do so. The god still wouldn't stir, but his next breath came with a sort of sleepy whine, more like an agitated puppy than a deity. Best to keep that a secret. "You should stop being so cute. It makes the whole evil image a little shallow." Of course, Loki responded to that with half a yawn and a slight toss of his head, brow furrowed in discomfort.

It was amazing how... cuddly the guy could look when he was sleeping. Tony knew a psychiatrist would say it had something to do with his lack of affection throughout most of his life, with his fear and his need for comfort that he was too afraid to ask for. Personally, Tony just suspected he was part cat.

Speaking of cats. Had Pepper been feeding Fenrir? He hoped so, or the little monster was likely to have sneaked out and knocked a group of old people down the stairs to satisfy his hunger. He was way too evil to go after birds, and probably not smart enough, either. Tony almost missed the little guy- if Loki couldn't or wouldn't come home with him, at least he'd have that bratty thing around to keep him company. If he could even put up with being reminded of Loki day in and out, knowing he was up in this unreachable world that looked like something out of a rejected Star Trek set-

And where he was, too, for the time being at least, without any guarantee if Loki would be leaving or not. The whispering at the door grew louder for a moment, and Loki's hand tightened marginally then relaxed, enough so that Tony was sure he could get free without disrupting his sleep (more like coma- could someone even disrupt a coma? Wouldn't that be a good thing? He should try it one of these days) if he wanted to. And he suddenly found that he did, that he couldn't look down on Loki looking so empty like this any longer, and extracted his hand, found his feet, and made his way half to the door before simply sinking to the ground and letting the wall catch him.

God dammit, where was it written in the laws of the universe that Tony Stark wasn't allowed to be happy? He was making himself sick with worry staying here, and he couldn't take more than two steps away from Loki's side without some sort of residual panic setting in. He was beginning to steel himself up for another attempt when Loki let out a soft noise like a cough, followed by the slight creaking of the bed as he rolled over. Tony glanced up, anxious, and almost felt his heart stop when he saw two bleary eyes blinking down at him from the mattress.

"Darling, why are you on the floor?" He wondered, yawning and reaching out to give Tony an amused yet condescending pat on the head.

Still somewhat in shock, Tony let the movement pass uncontested. "Um, better question- why aren't _you_ on the floor? Jeez, get with the times, Lo."

"I will remain a happy and comfortable outcast, thank you very much." Another yawn, and Loki turned his head for a lazy survey of the room. "This... is not SHIELD."

"Good job, one point to you."

"It is not your home, either."

"That's two points."

Loki let out a soft snarl, and Tony quickly bit his tongue, aware of a few more smart comments building in his throat. Obviously, he wanted answers more than jokes right now. "We're in Asgard. The medical place. Healers' rooms, that's what they're called? Something like that. you dealt with Schmidt... twenty seven hours ago, and passed out about twenty six hours ago. Thor's not here at the moment, and speaking of which..."

Tony put a hand against the wall and gave a quick shove, staggering to his feet with more clumsiness than pain. He was still sore from the fall he'd taken during the fight with Schmidt, and his muscles still a bit agitated by the shock from the tesseract, but he was feeling a lot better than he had during the past week. Loki watched him with confusion and apprehension, but he flashed a reassuring smile and merely crossed the room to lock the door, hearing the voices falter briefly on the other side before taking up again, even more quietly than before. Tony considered staying to listen, but the thought barely lasted a moment before he whipped around, finding himself with a grin on his face, the feeling of it so odd that his cheeks ached.

"You're awake." Loki nodded, as if this somehow needed confirmation, and Tony resisted the urge to return to his bedside in a few hurried steps, instead opting to turn the grin into a smirk and walk back at his usual ambling pace. "You know, you sleep a _lot._ Do gods hibernate, or something?"

"You might believe it of Thor," Loki conceded with a wary smile, his eyes reflecting more exhaustion than happiness. "Why are we here? I would not have expected them to allow you here. I do not wish to see my family, Tony, you should not have let Thor bring us to Asgard."

"I wouldn't've, babe, you know that- but you were dying. Call me crazy, but I thought the awkward family reunion would be worth it." Even though he knew there was a high chance this could be the last time he ever spoke to Loki. It was better to be separated, and both alive, than for him to be dead, though, and Tony hadn't been willing to take a risk like that, not after listening to him tortured.

Yet the look Loki turned on him was furious, betrayed, and a good bit frightened. "That should not have been your decision to make. You know I would not have consented to this- what if they do not let me leave? You can't ask me to face my father again! I'd have thought you would understand why I wished to stay away."

"I do." It was probably stupid or cruel, but Tony felt his heart quickening with relief- so Loki wanted to return to earth? "It's... not as bad as you think. Odin wants to talk in private, to both of us. All right? I'm not leaving you alone for a second, you don't have to deal with them by yourself."

"You think he will listen to a mortal's counsel?"

"I don't give a damn if he listens to me or not- he'll just have to realize the hard way that I'm not easy to bully."

Loki bristled, but rather than explode into an argument he froze, winced, and deflated as Tony watched, raising a hand to cover his face and smacking his hand none too gently when he tried to reach out and comfort him. "Damn you, Tony. Don't even consider it. My f- the Allfather would have you whipped for your insolence, if he didn't simply strike where you stood. You are not on Earth, we do not solve our problems with a few curt words and a smile, here."

"You saw how I solve my problems down on earth. I'm not thinking about words." He had no suit, no real technology- he had about nothing, really, and though Tony's heart quickened at the nakedness of being away from his tech, he knew he could get by. _Had_ gotten by before, on much less than what little he had now. "I'm not going to let him-"

"I am familiar with your arrogance, Tony, but do not let it step the boundary into foolishness. For all your intelligence and prowess on earth, you are nothing to Odin. He could kill you with an unfriendly thought." Loki glanced up at last, his eyes tired and clouded. "Do not claim to understand this world, Tony. It will not treat you kindly if you do."

"I don't care. Look what it did to you. I-Okay, yeah, I'll take your advice. I won't sass off to the man in charge. Not too badly, anyway. But I can help, babe. I'm with you in all this, remember?"

There was a long silence, during which Loki would not look at him or move, hardly seeming even to breathe. And then- "You are very difficult to forget, Tony."

The words were whispered, half choked, but earnest. Tony sat beside him, hesitating, and when there was no flinch or glare wrapped his arms around the familiar form; so tall, full to the brim with power, capable of ripping through metal with muscle as easily as magic, of dominating him well and completely; and yet, he felt like the smallest thing in the world in that moment, relaxing into Tony's arms with a muffled whine of relief.

They'd been through a hell of a lot, lately, but it was usually Tony who found comfort in the other's grip and words, Loki who had to soldier through both their burdens and beat them all down with a dogged, almost fanatic determination. Loki who was overdue for a good, long cry, and who had Tony more than willing to hold him through it, muttering the few assurances he could, with a kiss and a small, sad smile at his lips.

They fell asleep like that, though when and for how long Tony couldn't have guessed. All he knew was that he'd drifted off some time during his reassurances, and when he woke Loki was half-asleep but nearing consciousness, lying over his chest and, despite having curled up to avoid crushing Tony, providing enough weight to make breathing a bit uncomfortable. He didn't mind really, so he only blinked away the exhaustion he hadn't known was present, casting about a few cautious glances for anything that might give him an inkling of how much time has passed. The sounds outside the door had stopped, but that was about it.

Loki was awake enough to glance up at him, but he gave no signs beyond that and lay his head back over Tony's chest, simply staring at the opposite wall with little to no visible expression. Tony grimaced at the silence, but pulled the god closer and kissed him against the throat, relieved when he felt a slight relaxation in the tension of the body in his arms. "Any better?"

"That shall depend on my father." Loki didn't turn to look at him, but he did consent to lean in a little closer. "When will he request an audience, I wonder?"

"Probably as soon as he realizes you're up. Here." That water on the bedside was there for a reason, and if Odin was going to be dragging them off for an awkward family reunion, Tony wanted to make sure Loki had least had had something. The god stared at the cup as if he'd been offered a glass of too-sweet poison, but his internal struggle was brief enough that Tony didn't even have the chance to press the issue before he'd swallowed the whole thing.

"More."

"So demanding," Tony taunted, nonetheless complying. Now was not the best time for teasing, not genuinely. He filled the cup and returned it, watching with some awe as it was all swallowed in two eager movements of Loki's throat. "Wow. why don't I just hand you the pitcher?"

"Yes, do that."

"Aaaand you're serious. Okay. Don't spill."

Loki did not, though it seemed almost impossible that he should tip the whole thing down so quickly and not drench himself in the process. "Isn't that dangerous? If you're dehydrated-"

"I am a god. Water will not harm me," Loki assured, the only pause he took in his drinking until the pitcher was empty, and the speed of his gulps had settled at something approaching normality. "I have had nothing to drink since we were in the hotel, if you recall. How long has that been?"

"'Bout a day. Fury's probably throwing a fit." Tony tried to sound amused, rather than worried, but he couldn't help but be fully aware how badly he needed to get back home, and how unlikely it was that that was going to happen any time soon. Despite how impatient Loki tended to be, Tony doubted most gods were too bothered by the concept of lost time.

But at least the one next to him was, enough to frown for his sake, at least, before handing back the pitcher to be returned to the bedstand. "I will see he does not wait long. Our cat must be getting worried."

"_Fenrir?_ You're worried about Fenrir?"

"Who else?"

"I dunno, Pepper? Rhodey?"

"They will not worry for me. Fenrir will," Loki explained simply, sitting up straight with a stretch and a grimace before Tony could get his arms around him again. "Can you stand?"

"Yeah. _I_ wasn't the one who had a pole shoved through my already sufficiently maimed gut, you know."

"It was a pipe, actually." Which personally, Tony would have thought would feel worse, what with the hollow middle, but had apparently not been bad enough that Loki could not stand now, even if he trembled slightly when he did it.

Talking him down would be impossible and probably pointless, so Tony hopped to his own feet in a much smoother movement, reaching out all the same to snag his arm around the god's waist. Loki glared, but did not protest. "So what spurned this extremely horrible idea, exactly?"

"I will not wait for the Allfather to beckon me as he sees fit. He will see me now, when I choose. I will have that, at least."

Loki's face was determined and brutal, so Tony nodded, but did not let go. Proud as the god may be, there was little to no doubt that he would collapse if he did, and he'd rather risk sleeping on the couch than watch Loki fall to the ground. Based on the look he was getting as they started off, he could look forward to a very uncomfortable back for the next few weeks.

VVV

Loki didn't know what he had expected- but the level of hostility that met him as he limped through the halls was worse than even that. If not for Tony, and the knowledge of how Thor would react, Loki did not doubt he would have been thrown against a wall within five minutes of setting out. As it was, he let his gaze wander to the glares and threats that came his way, allowing himself the pleasure of smirks that flashed his teeth and vicious looks of his own, lacking somewhat in intensity. Schmidt was dead, Tony was safe, and they were together, even if in Asgard. It didn't matter so much, somehow, that the people who had once bowed at his passing now looked at him with their hatred brimming for all to see. People who should have kissed his feet and begged forgiveness for even the slightest trespass, yet met his eye with almost equal disdain to his own.

He wondered what crime their judgment was for, or if they were merely taking this chance to offer their hatred to the weaker Prince. Maybe it was something as simple as heritage that drove their spite, or perhaps they considered his claiming of the throne to be treachery. Loki would feel no guilt for that. Thor would have made a worthless King, and the title had been offered him, not taken, no matter how temporarily it was his. The attack on Jotunheim should have earned their awe, not their hatred. He had done more to thwart their life-long enemy than Thor ever had.

And yet they hated him, and Loki had expected no different. They thought him weak, cowardly, monstrous. Maybe he was. But it did not matter whether he was all or nothing of what they made him to be- it never seemed to make a difference to Tony, and Loki thought his opinion worth more than Asgard's entire lot combined.

Or so he thought, at least, while they encountered no more than familiar faces and casual acquaintances. It was outside the royal chambers where he stopped and felt himself growing cold, violently aware that there were those whose words still held some power over him. And oh, how he hated the way even thinking of Frigga left him her little boy again, feeling small and weak, eager to please the one person who he actually _could._ It was different with Odin, who had been a factory of awe, fear, and self-loathing for Loki all his life. He had never expected anything more than disappointment from his father, but with Mother (and perhaps even with Thor, though he would never come near to admitting it)...

"Hey." Loki did not look toward Tony, but he let himself lean into the man's hand when it found his shoulder, relieved. "You'll be fine. I can give a very glowing recommendation of your character- and sexual prowess, but I think I'd better leave that part out."

"If you do not, I will strangle you with your belt."

"Kinky."

"Is anything not, for you?"

"No, but you've got to admit that one was pretty-"

"No, Tony, I do not. Just keep your mouth shut until you must do otherwise, please," Loki muttered, his jaw tight with annoyance. And yet he was breathing more calmly than he had, and took Tony's hand in his own as he knocked on the door, grasping until the very moment it swung open.

The servant at the door was cordial until he realized who he had just come to see their King. His eyes grew wide, then disgust took over, and yet he bowed, stiffly and shortly, and stepped aside, with no more than a weak muttering of the required courtesies. Tony stared at him with unabashed amusement, but Loki ignored the servant as easily as he always had, except to order him, in no uncertain terms, to be out of the room before he had him whipped.

Clearly his authority was in question, for the servant seemed to regard this order with contempt. But he nodded, tightly, when Loki finally met his eye, and hurried from the room. And a good thing, too- Loki may have had some difficulty finding a guard to follow his orders, but he could have put a switch to the man's back himself, if he was in the mood for it. Tony, luckily, saw the threat as a bluff or joke, and only grinned at the man's retreating back, then whispered something playful about a better use for whips.

Loki's lips nearly twitched into a smile, but he kept the look under control before it earned him any more of his father's suspicion. Odin and Frigga, sitting as ever side by side, had fallen almost comically silent at his entrance, but now seemed to be keeping quiet out of their own accord. The Queen looked like she had much to say, but her husband must have given her some signal for silence, because she did not so much as stand, and Loki was left with no clues as to how best to behave next.

Normally, Loki would barge into the throne room with a polite knock and a disregard for the flustered servants who might try and see him out, and if there was no business under way he would get on with his own, no formalities necessary. These had been his family, after all, and even the more polite prince was allowed a few failings of protocol. Now, however, he bowed stiffly, and flicked his wrist, forcing Tony to do the same when it became clear the man's pride would stand up to all but magic interference. He gave a yelp of indignation and surprise that had Loki feeling almost guilty, but it was worth it when he straightened and saw the looks on his "parents" faces'.

"I was informed that you wished to see me once I was well, Allfather?" Loki wondered, in the voice he usually reserved for dignitaries and ambassadors, or at least those which he did not count as friends. There was no hint of affection or even hatred in it, and he could see Frigga and Odin both stunned by the lack of the one emotion or the other. Good. Loki could have snapped and raged, or cajoled and taunted, but nothing would have been so satisfying as seeing their shock for absolute nonchalance. What did they expect? After lying to him so long... they had made it clear that they were no family of his.

Odin studied him a moment then stood, his expression unreadable. Frigga whispered something that he seemed to ignore, and Loki narrowed his eyes to meet the Allfather's as he crossed the room, struggling to keep his expression otherwise neutral as he approached. And then, after they had locked gazes for long enough that Tony began to look worried, Odin's hand fell lightly on his shoulder, and he replied, "Eir was to contact me when she thought you fit to leave the medical bay. You do not look well, my boy. Sit, I won't have you hurt."

Now it was Loki's turn to be floored. He stared back at Odin, just as blank as before, and took a step back, then another, until Odin's hand fell away. He went still again, then shook his head in two rough turns. "I am walking. But I thank you for the hospit-"

"Loki. I will not order you, but as your father I ask you to speak to me honestly." Odin's voice was quiet, soft, and frustratingly... honest. Loki knew the man's voice well enough that he had always thought he could understand when he was lying, but he must have lost the skill, for he saw only the truth in this welcoming manner, and that must have been wrong. "You are worrying your mother."

"Really? How strange, considering I have never met her."

Frigga looked hurt, and came to her feet with such an expression of concern and pain that Loki had to turn his gaze away, some unwelcome emotion gnawing at his stomach like a wild animal. He wasn't entirely sure why he had said that, but he did not feel quite prepared to apologize. Tony shot him a look partially surprised but primarily concerned, which Loki did his best to keep out of even his peripheral vision. What were they expecting, smiles and sunshine? He could not have been prepared for this, for coming home.

This was not how this was meant to have gone. Loki felt frantic, not pleased, at the looks his supposed parents were wearing- where was their anger, even their sadness? He could have reveled in and laughed for that, instead he was being met with what seemed to be fear. Not of him, but _for_ him, and Loki bristled at the concern. They would patronize him even now, after all that had happened? He hadn't forgotten the final words the Allfather had given to send him over the edge of the bifrost.

"Don't. I did not come here for sentiment. Whatever you wish to say to me, save us both the time and just say it. I have to pay for what I've done, apologize to the guards' families, sit the stocks? Whatever you have decided, get on with it. Then leave me be, Allfather. I have no interest in remaining in your kingdom longer than I must."

"What cause have I given you to expect so little of me, Loki?" Norns _damn_ him. Odin was pulling the disappointed-father look again, eyes drawn together sadly, as if he was hurt that Loki would think anything but the best of him. He glared in return, and had to restrain himself from taking a step away. He'd almost forgotten Tony was there until the man put a familiar hand on his shoulder, thumb massaging his back slowly, and Loki managed to breathe easier. He had come here to be in control, hadn't he?

So he smirked, unkindly, and replied with his usual composure,"Would you like a written list, or should I just begin rattling things off until you're satisfied?"

Frigga was beside her husband now, the four of them standing in an almost perfect square, each rooted to the spot by an almost physical tension. "We did not call you to punish you. We- thought you would be happy to come home," the queen said at last, once the silence had grown unnerving even for Loki. Tony must have been half mad with impatience.

"I do not have a home. You both made that clear enough."

"How? By taking you in as our child? By not advocating your attempt to destroy an entire realm out of anger?" Odin did not step forward, but his voice had hardened, and something in Loki jumped to listen at that. He cursed the instinct, the familiarity of the commands from the man who had called him father, but waited for him to speak all the same. "I made many mistakes, and they almost cost you your life. But whatever you believed, we have never thought of you as anything but our son."

Loki flinched, and drew his lips back in half a snarl, softened to a frown, narrowed his eyes. _Shut up, damn you. Stop._ Why couldn't he get a fix on his own damn expression? He was torn between not breathing and breathing too quickly, wanted to curse, laugh, and throw this silence back in Odin's face. All three, at once? Impossible, but his body was trying. What had happened to control? There was nothing particularly unusual about any of this, he ought to have been able to... he should have...

"That's the problem with bad parenting. Nobody _realizes_ they're fuckin' up until too late, hence the whole genocide-attempt fiasco. I can't really talk from experience, but I got to deal with the aftermath, so I think that counts for something, yeah?" Tony's grip tightened, and his voice was a little too loud, but his smile was huge, sarcastic, and Loki felt something melt at the sight. "Okay, let's all get on the same page here, folks. You guys have been mellowing in this whole 'holy shit we drove our son to suicide' level of grief thing for awhile, haven't you? Like, months. I mean, that might not mean much to you guys, but I can't even _imagine_ what that must have felt like. You thought your son was dead. Strong emotions take up a lot more time than normal ones."

Loki didn't like the way his parents glanced at each other, the truth of Tony's words obvious in the looks they shared. Did they have to talk about this, now? "And who are you?"

"Loki's boyfriend. You guys have that word here? Lover? Dearest? We have sex and hold hands and stuff. Anyway, so you guys feel really bad about that and you're all relieved to see him back, and you've been sad and... whatever. I mean, when you feel like shit about something happening, and you find out it didn't really happen, you're happy. And you expect everyone else to be happy, too. Well Loki's spent all that time remembering what pushed him off that bridge. So all that stuff you guys spent these months saying 'I wish we'd said' or 'I hope he knew'- well, he doesn't get it. He never got to hear all of that. And I am _terrible_ with feelings, ask any of my ex girlfriends, they want to light me on fire or something, but trust me when I say- he needed to hear it, and he didn't. So. That's what happened, yeah?"

"Shut up, Tony," Loki growled, reaching up a hand to wipe at his eyes, relieved to find them dry. He wasn't- he had not given any of them the right to analyze him. Though it was almost worth it, to see the way Odin and Frigga frowned, and then the way they looked at him- "Stop that. Stop looking at me like that. Haven't you made it clear enough? I don't want anybody's _pity._ I- I want-"

Frigga stepped forward, and suddenly he was in her arms like a child again, and though she was so much smaller than he was now, the familiar warmth, the smell of her perfume, were all around him, and he could not move. "You are my son. Our son. You have been through so much, and we were blind to it. But we love you, Loki. Both of us."

And it sounded like nothing, really, like all they had said so far, like the first thing he would have said if he were attempting the same thing as them. But the _way _she said it was enough, and Loki let his head fall against his mother's shoulder, and took in rapid, deep breaths, his chest burning with the effort of keeping his eyes dry- and he was angry, but Tony's arm was on his shoulder, Odin and Frigga both were soon holding him like family, and he could not find it in him to push them away.

It was wretchedly embarrassing, standing here in front of the full court again. It had not been long since he and Thor had been on these steps for his brother's doomed coronation, and now here they were again- except now it was he, Loki, kneeling in front of their "father", and Thor on the steps. And it was not the lady Sif or the warriors three taking their stances but Tony, decked out in reds and golds that suited him far better than such colors ever should. He looked vaguely alone standing up there, but Thor was near, and he was grinning like a reassuring idiot despite the stares of fascination or disgust shot his way, and Loki supposed he could hardly complain, in comparison.

But Norns be damned kneeling _hurt._ His stomach had hardly recovered from the abuse it had been put through- admittedly with his willingness and for a greater purpose he would still not regret- and it was very difficult to listen to Odin's dramatics while his body alternated between pain and nausea to see which would actually get him to move out of this horribly uncomfortable position.

If he'd been doing this for a reward, like Thor had, it might have been easier. Instead his head was bowed in humility they all knew to be false, and Odin's words were ringing with command, just the right amount of disappointment and affection mingled in the listing of each crime of his. The most humorous had to be harming Heimdall, he had to admit, because then the King paused, and Loki was finally permitted to look up. A trial for show was still a trial, and audacity would get him nowhere, but his neck was horribly stiff.

"Heimdall has protected Asgard for as long as it has stood. He is due a place of honor in our land as well as any member of the royal court, as you well knew, Loki. Yet your actions nearly caused his death, and it was only through Thor's arrival that your intent there was thwarted."

They had not discussed all of this beforehand- Loki had expected surprises, but not this one. He licked his lips, contemplating his words carefully, and resisted the urge to smile at the way Tony made a very obvious show of stifling a yawn. Despite the uneasy reconciliation he had brought between them, Tony did not like either of Loki's "parents", and he did not approve of this public trial, either. The court demanded punishment, however, and worried as they had been, Loki knew Odin and even Frigga were not pleased with what he had done.

Still, this was the first accusation not metered with a small touch of guilt, and so Loki felt he owed Odin more than the usual 'Yes, Allfather, I have done as you have said and regret my crimes, so on and so forth' in this case. "I did not attack Heimdall with the intention of killing him, Allfather, though I knew the casket was capable of doing so, and that if it did not, the Jotuns may."

Jotuns- his people, more than those around him now, but it would do no good to remind them. "But I did not kill him myself, for I knew Heimdall could break his way free, if any could. Call me a coward, but he had already lost our fight, and I chose to give him the chance for another." He was glad the gatekeeper was not here this moment, though he was probably watching. Loki was not too fond of Heimdall, any longer. "Though execution may have been more appropriate a punishment, for attempting to murder a king."

"Explain."

"I forbade Heimdall from allowing anyone the use of the bifrost. He chose to ignore my orders, because he was upset that I had moved around outside his sight, as was my right, as a prince and then lawful King of the realm. He let the warriors three down to earth, where they sought to end Thor's banishment, defying your orders, and my own." All because they had not, had never, trusted him. Loki felt a surge of anger at the memories, but it did not last long. He was satisfied to see looks of reluctant shock throughout the assembled crowd- and some shame from his brother's friends. No doubt they had never thought of their actions as anything but heroic, despite the laws they had broken on no more ground than suspicion. "I saw no purpose in ending your punishment, Allfather, as Thor had hardly then given any cause to believe he had truly learned his lesson. Apologies, brother, but you know this is true."

Thor nodded, reluctantly. Three days was so little, so meaningless, that Loki found it a wonder it could ever have counted, even if he had saved those mortals. It seemed so insufficient a punishment for nearly starting a war, when Loki was facing a trial for a little backseat trickery. "I went to rebuke Heimdall, and when he admitted to disobeying my, his King's, orders, I dismissed him from his post. He took the liberty of attempting to behead me, and I defended myself."

Thor was sufficiently shocked by that, and Frigga, and most of those around them- only Odin kept his composure entirely, and Loki did not doubt Heimdall had told him of this all before. The gatekeeper kept no secrets from the Allfather. "Of course, he never really liked me. Most of them didn't. But I was given the throne because I was the next in line for it, through legal and traditional means, and his suspicions did not, in my mind, justify attempted regicide." He paused here, and shrugged. "Well, he was partially right, of course. I was lying to him. But I was working against Jotunheim, not Asgard, doing what I thought I was right. He had no cause to interfere- you and Thor were the only ones allowed to make that decision, and you did."

"He's lying!"

Loki did not know who shouted it, but he was surprised they had waited so long. Odin barely bothered to look up. "No, Heimdall confirmed his story long ago. Owing the circumstances, neither of you shall face punishment for those particular crimes. Is this acceptable?"

No, not really. Loki would have loved to see the gatekeeper punished- but he would never have it, and his relationship with Odin was shaky at best, and he did not entirely trust his father to make what Loki himself saw as the right decision. "Perfectly."

"Good. Then let us continue."

And on and on it went. They had both wanted to put this off, Odin and Frigga, but Loki would not allow for it. He still felt lost in the halls which had once been his home, and the more pity they showed him, the worse the feeling became, so better they treat him like a criminal for the court. He had already been assured his punishment would be a mild one- much, Loki predicted, to the disappointment of this crowd. People he had not seen since Thor's coronation, gathered around to watch _him_ facing judgment, like he was somehow no longer their prince, their better. He wanted simultaneously to curse them and to hide away from their glares, but he did neither, gaze fixed once more on the floor as Odin listed the remainder of his transgressions.

"And so, Loki, on the behalf of those you have wronged, will you hear your punishment?"

What would they do if he said no? Loki was tempted, but again, aggravating these people would do him no good. Odin had promised him something minor, so long as he did nothing more, and he would hold his tongue for that, if nothing else. "I will."

"Very well. Your actions brought harm to realms beyond our own. Rebuilding Jotunheim would be the just course, but is for many reasons impossible"

Nobody protested that one, though Loki imagined they would happily have seen him off if not for the fact that he might actually do the frost giants some good, before they realized who he was and killed him. Jotunheim would have to do without his aid. "That leaves us of Asgard, and those of Midgard. I, Odin Allfather, sentence you to serve both in kind. On my land, you will act as counsellor to your brother, Thor, for so long as he sees fit, no less than a decade. Do you accept this term?"

"I do." Serving Thor? For a _decade_? Loki wondered if he would stop breathing then and there. He had always known it would be his lot in life to advise his brother, loathe as the oaf would always be to listen, but now? Ten years, away from Tony, away from earth. He cast the man a brief look, struggling down the fear in his eyes. He just smiled, damn him, and gave what he probably assumed was a reassuring sort of wink. Did he not understand? He could very well be dead in that time- look how close he had come in just these past few months, how _fragile_ he was... How could Loki leave him so long, when they had such little time already?

"However-" Loki did not look away, though Tony did turn to Odin as he spoke, looking much too calm from this distance. He was sure that if he stepped close, he would see the minute signs of worry in the mortal- the soft quirk of his lip, the lines about his eyes, the way he fiddled his fingers about when he was agitated. "In order to make amends to earth, and to serve a purpose beyond that of Asgard, you will return to Midgard, where you will remain without question except when Thor sees fit to call you home to serve. Your powers will be in tact, and you will use them to serve the mortals under the supervision of the Man of Iron, here today, until he gives you pardon. Anthony Stark, as the only man present to speak for Midgard, do you accept? You will need to keep watch over Loki whenever he is within your realm."

_What?_ "Yeah. I uh- I mean, yes, Allfather. I accept these terms? That the right-?" Tony glanced toward Loki, who quickly nodded, and then repeated the motion, grinning in that cocky way which would have earned him a slap from about anyone else. "Yeah, I think we'll find some use for him."

Odin nodded, his expression seemingly grave, and turned toward Loki, who realized he should have looked the same, for the benefit of the crowd. But his open-faced shock was enough to satisfy them, the hall on either side of him rustling with laughter and muffled jeers. The proud, foolish, wayward prince, forced to work for the _mortals._ How pathetic, how low.

How perfect.

"Very well. Then this court is dismissed- Loki, you shall remain so we may meter out your sentence."

Nobody wanted to go, he could sense that. They wanted to stay and bask in his failure, to indulge in the sight of their prince's indignation, but they could not, and would have been sorely disappointed if they had. Sif shot him a particularly nasty look from across the hall as she and the warriors three made their reluctant exit, and though his very genuine grin in response had her narrow her eyes in suspicion, it was worth it to see the others' confusion. Thor snapped at him under his breath to stop, and Loki turned away, still grinning, and ducked his head in a show of submission that was a laughable performance at best, especially measured to his standards.

His family all seemed annoyed or worried by this -there were still stragglers in the court after all, a few even turning to shout at him over the din- but Tony laughed, and Loki's smile only grew broader. Odin may have thrown him this favor, and he still did not know what conditions lay beneath it, but he felt he owed him little, and that it bothered him that Loki was playing the distraught criminal so poorly was only a bonus.

At last the halls were cleared, even of the guards, loathe though they were to follow Odin's order to leave them. And then, though Loki wanted for the first time since his childhood to get up and jump to hug his father, or to take his mother's hand and spin her around, to move because he was so damned _happy- _he stood, his grin flickering, his eyes locked in their downward cast. "Why? Those were not lies. I committed crimes, I betrayed our people. And so you reward me?"

"It is not entirely a gift, Loki. You will have to fight for Midgard, and if you turn on the mortals, your powers will be bound, and I will not be so lenient then." Odin's voice had gone from grand and formal to grand and familiar, though the words carried no less weight because of it. "But I do not expect such measures to be necessary. Not while Anthony is around, at the least. I have never seen you so fond of a human."

"Awww, you're fond of me? Now I feel special," Tony teased, his hands coming to cross over his chest as he ducked his head in an award-worthy schoolgirl impression. It was excessively disturbing, but Thor's expression at the sight more than made up for that. "But seriously, babe, don't go blowing shit up, okay? I like my planet intact."

"I make no promises." Loki doubted the others would appreciate the joke as Tony might, so he gave them little time to consider it, and forced himself to meet Odin's eye, dragging his thoughts away. "You still have not explained _why_ you have granted me such a favor."

Why did they have to come back to this wretched realm? Loki hadn't had a single comfortable moment since. Normally, he found awkward atmospheres amusing, but right now he wanted to shrink away and hide from his own questions- while simultaneously fighting the urge to grin like an idiot. It was not a good combination. The pause was not long, startled at his suspicion more than anything, but it was Thor, not Odin nor Frigga, who broke it. "You have done more good than you know, brother. You returned the tesseract to us, and kept it from the hands of one who would certainly have misused it. And in doing so you saved many of the humans. We all have reason to be grateful."

"And so you saw fit to absolve me of punishment, in light of this change of heart, is that it?" Loki was grateful, yes, but not so much so that he couldn't scoff at the sentiment Thor had just offered. "Not that I don't appreciate this endearing newfound optimism of yours, but you could have saved a good deal of trouble making that point for the court."

"We feared they would not accept it so readily. None of them is happy with you for what you did, and if they did not see you punished, their resentment may never fade," Thor explained, slowly, almost regretfully, and Loki was momentarily floored. Not by the words, they were about what he had expected, but by his so-called brother being the one to give them. The Thor he had left behind those months ago would hardly have given these matters a thought, yet alone recognized a diplomatic solution. "I suggested we present your return to earth as a punishment. Our people will see you do good, and when you return they will be more willing to forgive."

"Guess fame's no different realm to realm, eh? The general public _still_ feels entitled to a part in every aspect of your daily life. Hey, at least you guys don't have cameras. I can see it now- 'Prince Loki caught actually enjoying himself on earth- scandal!'." Tony raised his hands, thumbs together to frame an imaginary newspaper headline, and grinned at Loki through the gap. He got rolled eyes in response, but the affection was clear, and so he only laughed and hopped down the stairs, slipping past Thor to come up by Loki. "Okay, not my best material. Don't mind me- I'm just happy."

"And we both know that's never good."

"Well then you should just hang out here, 'cause I'm going to be _very_ happy while you're around."

"Don't sound too pleased, or they might take back the offer."

"Right then. Man, does your company suck. I am so not looking forward to any number of years of sass, sex and-"

"_That_ is enough."

"What? Not family friendly talk? Hey, mommy and daddy god, is it weird that a mortal's f-"

Loki's hand snapped over Tony's mouth, despite his hope that the man would have censored himself for once, though the man's laugh was yet audible behind it. Odin and Frigga certainly seemed floored by the sudden brashness Tony had taken up, and Loki didn't particularly want to deal with awkward questions later. "Your mistake, letting him become comfortable with the lot of you. He's even worse when he's not trying to impress."

"I see as much. I think we'll both just have to become accustomed to each other- if he is going to be so attached to my son, anyway." Frigga was the first to respond, her bemusement expressed in an almost warm smile as she too stood, gliding down the stairs with much more elegance than Tony had done. "You had better take very good care of my boy. He'll be alone on earth but for you, do not forget that."

"I am right _here._" It was all he could do not to add the whining inflection of an offended child, and harder still to keep composure. That she should still treat him as her son was... unnerving, but it seemed his whole family was determined to be, well, just that. "Enough of that. All of you. I- you understand, I am grateful. You could have made this all much worse for me. But do you understand how strange this all is for me? You can't act like this is all _normal._ Certainly not for me."

"Really, Loki, I thought we'd gone over this. We know you are not ready to forgive us, but we are trying to be the best parents _and_ rulers we can. And right now that means warning off your mortal boyfriend in case he gets the idea that being in a different realm will protect him from an angry mother," Frigga explained, her voice dipping from sweet to harsh and then lifting in a laugh at Tony's expression. "We're not going to trap you here when you clearly aren't ready to come home. I won't say that I wouldn't rather have my whole family here again, but I know you need time. You _will_ have to come back whenever Thor calls on you, though, it wouldn't be a punishment if you didn't."

Ah, yes, he'd almost forgotten that part. Loki winced, and Thor shot him a look of weak sympathy, coming across as more of a grimace through his attempts not to smile. "Asgard still needs to be run, brother. We have duties to our home, and it is about time I learned to fulfill them."

"And I'll be doing the teaching?"

"Who would be better?"

"I am not in the mood for you flattery, Thor," Loki growled, to little effect. He was not angry enough to be intimidating at the moment, but that would not stop him from trying. "If I am to help earth well, they will have to learn what I am. What we all are. Any rumors Thor started when he landed will be confirmed the first time I fight an open battle, not to mention when we reveal Tony is alive. Are you willing to have that?"

"We have never hidden from the mortals. They chose to forget us, but it will be no harm for them to remember," Odin assured, far too quickly, almost as if he were eager (were the Allfather ever eager for anything) to make the same amends as the others had. It wasn't likely that any outside of this room would recognize the change in his verbal behavior, and Tony's lack of a reaction was a testimony to that- though there was always the chance that he simply wasn't paying attention. "This is strange to you, son, but do not think of it only as a reward. I have hopes that Midgard will teach you more than I could."

"Do you?" Loki felt Tony's presence at his side very strongly at that moment and turned toward him, unsurprised to see he had done the same. The man was smiling, and of course that meant Loki had to as well, even if the oddity of it hurt his lips. He tried to remember the last time the mere sight of someone had left his heart feeling so warm it ached, how the mere idea of a future by their side could make him feel like less of a monster, weaken the blow returning home had dealt. He wanted to do _good_ for this man, unless to help him would require something worse, and he could imagine wanting little more than however many years he could have of waking up by him beside him. For that he would endure SHIELD, make amends with and even befriend Pepper, and aid, take the debt of, the mortals, but not rule them as he had once wanted. Were there a way to thieve Idunn's apples or tear him from Hel's side when the time came, he would.

If that meant he had learned the same weaknesses as Thor, then so be it. Loki did not want an easy or meaningless future, but for once he did not think of stability as boredom. There was a word he had never let himself speak floating in his mind over Odin's explanation, and he decided that he had long grown tired of being afraid. His hand snaked through Tony's, and he chuckled at the man's indignant muttering even as his calloused fingers closed around Loki's softer ones. Then he raised his eyes to those of the man who may or may not have been a father to him, and merely smiled.

"Yes, I do think we can count on that."

**A/N: And there we go. I have no idea if this is satisfactory, especially given how long I've made you all wait. But if I get into returning to earth, it'll be a whole other story, which may happen one day. For now I thank you all for the wonderful ride, putting up with my long delays, and supporting me with reviews and simply by reading. Now, it's time to make this thing all glossy and new for AO3.**


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